Blythe's little problem
by Generaallucas
Summary: (Now on TVTropes!) Even though everyone thought the whole issue with Sugar Sprinkles making everyone fall in love was resolved, Josh is still under the effects of the spell. Despite that, Blythe still has new embarrassing episodes with Josh. But then Blythe starts to feel that something is going awfully wrong - why is she starting to purr when Josh is around?
1. purring

"Bye!" Blythe called out to Sunil as she waved. It was the end of the day, and the pets had all gone home by now. The Nevla's, as was usual, were the last ones to pick up their pet. Fortunately, Sunil didn't really seem to care about that.

"That was that, then," Mrs. Twombly sighed. "Time to close up. This day has been a more than busy enough as it is."

"Not for me," Blythe said. "It is time for my S.M.W.O.S time!"

The old lady looked surprised. "What?"

"Studying Math With Other Students, of course! We've got a lot of homework to get done for the big test tomorrow!" Blythe explained to Mrs. Twombly.

"Of… course…" Mrs. Twombly replied, not knowing how to respond to the strange acronyms of the girl.

"I'll need to get going! They're probably already waiting for me!" Blythe said, "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Mrs. Twombly!" with that, she went to the dumbwaiter to get up to her bedroom.

"Have fun!" Mrs. Twombly replied.

_She's a strange young girl, but she's always there to help me out with the pet shop. I don't know what I would've done without her_, she thought. And with that, she went back to her own apartment.

* * *

After spending two full hours on her computer screen - eating dinner while she was at it, since she had it so busy - Blythe sighed from relief. It seemed like she understood the math problems that was necessary to easily pass the test. _That's better than I expected,_ she thought. _Hopefully I won't black out tomorrow._

"Should we meet up after school time?" Youngmee asked over Skype. "It is just that test and a few classes! For the most part tomorrow afternoon we'll have nothing to do anyways! It will be so much fun!"

"Sure! What do you guys think of that really cool skating course downtown? You'll love it!" Jasper said.

"Jasper!" Youngmee and Sue said at the same time.

"What? I thought it would be fun…"

"Let it go, Jasper," Blythe said. "We'll figure something out that we'll all like. You see. But for now…" she yawned, "I'm going to hit the hay. I'm tired."

"See ya!" Sue said.

"See you tomorrow!"

And with that, she closed off her computer and got into her pajama's. Then, out of tiredness, she collapsed onto the bed.

_Boy, am I tired, _Blythe thought. _And half an hour ago I was still so lively… guess that math problem really was more taking than I thought… well, it's not like Russell or Sunil could help me with it, I have to figure that out myself._

_O boy… the pets…it's so weird. _A thought struck her head. _Why can I actually understand them?_

Blythe has thought about trying to find out why she can talk to animals. However, for some reason she had never done that. _Perhaps I should do that one day._

Blythe began thinking. Why could she talk to animals? What was the purpose? Would it change? Would, one day, she suddenly forget how to talk to animals, like what happened when she got ill and had to take that medicine? She couldn't wrap her head around it.

"Blythe?"

She turned around and saw that it was her father standing in the doorway. "Hi dad. What is it?"

"My colleague got sick so I've got to cover for him. I'll need to leave tomorrow for a very long trip." He scratched his head. "I don't think I'll be back before next week."

"Dad, it's monday."

"I know. But you have never been alone so long before in your life. I'm not sure if - "

"Dad, I can handle myself, don't you worry," she interrupted him. "It'll be fine, don't you worry."

"Are you sure? I don't have to do it, you know, but I wanted to talk to you about it first," he asked, worried.

"No dad, really, I'm okay. You can just go on that trip of yours. I will be fine. I promise," she assured him. "I can do the shopping and all that myself. And the household. I've done this before."

"If you say so!" He said, "And I take it you're off to bed now?"

Blythe nodded. "Yeah. I've got a big test tomorrow and I want to be certain I'm not tired."

"Okay, that sounds that something that is really important. You go girl!"

"...what?"

"I mean, go for it, girl!"

"You see, now it starts to make sense," Blythe replied.

"Anyway, good night, Blythe! I'll see you in the morning!" Roger Baxter answered.

"Sure thing, dad! See you tomorrow!"

Roger Baxter left out of the doorway and went back to the living room. Blythe sighed and went to sleep. She would need the rest.

* * *

Blythe felt herself running. It was like she was almost flying through the air, her momentum steadily gaining. She had her eyes on her target.

She just kept running after the small menace that she was pursuing. It thought it was smart, it thought it could outrun her by running under boxes and garbage cans. T was so wrong. With a mighty smack, Blythe pushed the boxes away with her arm.

_It looks so tasty…._

"AAAAHHH! Don't kill me, please!" the small menace said.

Blythe didn't respond, but instead went for the kill.

"AAAHHHH…. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

* * *

Blythe was abruptly woken up by her alarm clock.

_What the huh?_

"Wasn't that a weird dream…" she mumbled as the turned off her alarm clock." Alright. Clothes on, breakfast, pets, math test. Come on, Blythe, you can do this."

She was very quickly done with what she needed to do. In fifteen minutes she was already heading downstairs to feed the pets.

As usual, the pets had already arrived on the scene. Normally Blythe would talk to them, but this time she just put the food there and left as quickly as possible, only saying 'hi' and 'bye' to the pets. The pets could sense she was nervous.

"I never saw her leave that quickly!" Vinnie said.

But Zoe had the idea that something was amiss.

"There is something odd though about Blythe," Zoe said.

"Nah, I think she's just nervous for that test of hers," Sunil replied.

"No… it's not that. Something about her rubs me the wrong way. I can sense it."

"Sensing she is scared?" Vinnie said, "Ye… we all sense that. There wasn't even a personal goodbye for me!"

Zoe ignored the two. _No, it isn't the nervousness, _she thought. _There is something else about her. But what?_

Blythe stepped on it. She had to make it in time!

She arrived at school, only to discover that…

…it was deserted.

_What the huh?_

Blythe pulled out her phone, looked at the time and saw it that it was…

…60 minutes before the test would actually start.

_Oops. Maybe I am a bit over-reacting… _she thought. She looked around for a bit. _Maybe Youngmee, Sue and Jasper are here already…_

But what she saw then in her eye-corner was something that let her feel butterflies as well as fear; it was Josh Sharp.

Blythe had not forgotten the fact that bad things would happen whenever he was around. _Omygosh. I have to hide before I do something embarrassing with a stupid laugh afterwards again…_

She looked around, found a bush and immediately hid behind it. Luckily for her, Josh had not seen her and just walked by.

What she didn't know, though, is that Josh had begun to feel something for her. Granted, this was mostly because Sugar Sprinkles had put him under his love spell, but there was something genuine in there that really liked Blythe, even though she could behave weird sometimes.

As he walked by, Blythe looked at him from the bushes. She really had a crush on the guy – she just didn't know what to do about it. _Should I approach him, maybe? Or just leave him be? _But no matter how much she thought, she knew that she didn't have the courage to ask him out anyway. _But still, he's such a nice guy…_

As she thought about him, she started to make some noise. It came up from her vocal chords and up her nostrils.

She was purring.

She did it quite loud, and Josh took notice of it.

"Oh, hey Blythe."

Blythe immediately stopped purring, and looked up at him.

"I thought I heard something. Are you looking for a cat? I thought I heard one nearby…"

Blythe looked up, surprised, and mumbled while putting her weird smile on. "Uh… eeh….. yeeah… I'm looking for a weird cat."

Josh looked around. "Looks like the cat isn't here anymore. Strange, I thought he was close a second ago…"

Then he began thinking.

"Why are you looking for this cat, anyway?" He asked her, wondering.

"Because… I needed…" Blythe didn't know how to answer it. "…to find… it for the daycare!"

"Uhm… sure…" Josh responded. _I don't think this is a good moment to ask her out… maybe later… _he thought. _She is a really cute girl, though. I really should ask her out. Maybe after she found that cat of hers… or something._

"Well, anyway…" Josh wanted to ask, but when he looked up he noticed the girl was already gone. _Weird._

In the meantime, Blythe already had gone into the school building. Despite it being early, the school was already opened. The early classes would start half an hour before hers did anyway, so that wasn't strange.

Blythe leaned against the wall. _That was close._

She took a moment to take in what just happened. _Josh said it - was I really making cat sounds? What is wrong with me? _She didn't know what to think of it, and of course, being Blythe, that would only frustrate her more.

And frustration was something she couldn't really use right now, with the math test and everything.

She sighed, and went in the direction of the hall where she would be having the test. _I still have 50 minutes left, but I've nothing else to do anyway... and I don't want to face Josh again_.

* * *

It took a while before Blythe saw her friends, and even more before the test actually started. She was quite nervous at this point; not only because of the test and the fact that she made weird cat noises, but also what Josh would think of her. The stress was almost too much for her, but she was brave enough to face it anyway. _First things first. Let's handle this test, and then I can think about why I'm acting so crazy and feeling so weird._

She walked inside, behind Youngmee, and took a seat almost at the front row of the class.

"Alright, everyone," the teacher announced. "There will be around 25 questions on this sheet. You can leave when you are ready."

Youngmee, who was sitting right next to her, had not yet unpacked her stuff and was desperately looking for her pen. "어디 그 펜은 괜찮습니까?" she mumbled under her breath. She had her bicycle keys and her mobile phone in one hand, and her etui in her other hand. It looked pretty clumsy.

Blythe, who already had picked up her pen, turned around to see what the commotion with Youngmee was about.

But when she looked, it was like a whole new world opened up for her. It was like everything she ever knew didn't mean anything anymore. In Youngmee's hands were her bike keys... and they were just so beautiful to Blythe. She just kept staring at it. _I need that._

She kept staring for a good moment. "알았어요!" Youngmee said, finally grabbing her pen. She then looked at Blythe. "Uh... Blythe... you okay?"

That got Blythe out of her hypnosis. She just sat upright again, and simply said. "Uh, yeah, I'm okay." She then stared at the test papers in front of her.

_What is wrong with me?_ She thought.

She didn't think about this anymore. This math test was her first priority. She reckoned that her own insanity could come later. She picked up her pen, and after the sign was given, started the test.


	2. sparkling and attractive

For the other parts, the test went without any huge issues. Blythe had prepared well for it, and, despite the serious issues she now faced, was able to put her mind to it. In the end, she could only conclude that this would be a pass.

Although she actually had two more classes today, she didn't want to go there. She was just way too afraid of what was going on with her. She wanted to get the bottom of this. _Maybe my powers have something to do with this? First I can understand pets, now I will behave like one? _Even though she loved the seven pets dearly for who they were, she didn't want to start to behave like them. It would make daily life almost impossible to do.

_Is it weird that I think of my own friends as being inferior to me? _Blythe couldn't wrap her head around what was going on. She just wanted to get back home and start to figure out what was going on. Hopefully, some answers would arrive quickly.

When she went home she didn't even say goodbye to Sue, Jasper or Youngmee - only when she was halfway did she realize that.

_Wait, didn't I promise to do something fun with them today? _Blythe remembered.

She didn't want to think about that for now - she could always apologize later. For now, she just wanted to go home and dig into what was causing her problems. And perhaps let the pets out to the park, as she usually did. That would be fun. If, of course, Minka wouldn't decide to go and play hide-and-seek again, causing Blythe to look for her on all the trees in the park. Because although that could be fun at first, Minka had a way of forgetting the time, and that was quite annoying.

And of course there was... Josh. Despite all the embarrassing events that had taken place over the past couple of weeks, she had still a crush on the guy. Maybe even more than ever before. She couldn't tell what it was that attracted her to him. Maybe it was the fact that he was so good at skateboarding, or his green eyes, or his love for books... or the way he played with his guitar.

Blythe noticed she heard a noise.

_What the huh?_

As soon as she discovered it, she silenced it - she was purring again. _This is it. I definitely purred,_ she thought. _Why am I purring? _She looked around - there was nobody in sight. _Good, _she thought. _I'd rather keep this embarrassment for myself._

* * *

It was only a small matter of time before she got home. She parked her motorcycle, took off her helmet and went inside. Within a minute, she was lying on her bed, with her face staring at the ceiling.

_Why can I talk with animals?_

She just lay down for a moment, thought, and then decided she needed to go on the internet to look for answers. _I'm not going to find my answers by just hanging around..._

Blythe jumped from her bed, went behind her desk and opened up her laptop. The best thing she could do for now was run a couple of Google searches.

At first she saw all kinds of research - animal behaviorists that were talking about using devices to talk to dolphins and elephants, and later on even animal trainers that somehow easily could form a bond with dogs and horses.

But that wasn't what Blythe looked for, so she changed her search option. Now she suddenly went into the weird places of the internet, where there was talk of self-hypnosis and all other kinds of weird stuff about 'becoming one with nature' and all that. All of these articles were vague and had nothing to do with what Blythe had. Then again, for Blythe it was hard to find logical answers, and she knew it. And she knew she couldn't just type in Google 'I am a teenage girl that can talk with animals and purrs at random times' and find anything.

After more than an hour of searching around the internet, Blythe admitted her defeat. _Is there then nobody like me? Nobody who can talk with animals and who can help me out with this? _She felt she was getting despondent of it. _I can't tell anyone about it... but isn't there really anyone out there like me? _Blythe then realized something. _Maybe they're just as afraid as I am, and are keeping it quiet also. Maybe there are hundreds, if not thousands of people like me, and they're all quiet. _She smirked at the idea. It would be pretty silly if it were true. _All those people living alongside each other, never knowing that they all could talk to animals..._

Despite this funny idea, Blythe had not found out anything on the internet. And she knew that.

She put her laptop down and looked at her alarm clock. It said it was 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

_Maybe I should take the pets outside to the park._

She needed the distraction; it was a good way to put her mind off things. So, she went into the dumbwaiter and went downstairs. There, she saw the other pets playing around as usual. Vinnie was watching TV, Penny Ling and Sunil were watching one of Pepper's acts; Russell of course had to take notes of it...

"Ooohhh Blythe! Are you going to a costume party?!"

The energetic pink monkey came down from the ceiling and jumped on Blythe's head. "Ooohhh they look so soft and furry! Where did you get them? I want them!"

Blythe, confused, picked up the spider monkey from her head and held her in her hands. "Oh, Minka, you're so silly, I'm not going to a costume party!"

"Oh? Then what are these?" Minka said when she plucked one of Blythe's ears.

"Ow! That hurt, Minka!" Blythe said as she let the monkey loose. She then realized something. She held her hands near her head... her ears felt weird.

"Minka! You should know better than to pull on people's bodies!" Zoe said, giving a drop off to the monkey. "Even though Blythe's costume is quite fabulous."

"Uh... Blythe?" Russell asked. "What is up with you? And why are you wearing those ears?"

Blythe didn't respond to him, and instead looked for something that could resemble a mirror. She found a small one on the ground and picked it up. When she held it before her head, she saw what Minka and the others were pointing at.

She had cat ears.

Her yell was long and loud.


	3. The transition

"Blythe?" said the hedgehog again. At this point he was getting frustrated of the lack of response. "Blythe?! Snap out of it! Talk to me!"

Blythe was sitting on her bed, curled up with her legs retracted and her hands behind her kneecaps. She had been sitting like that for ten minutes. After she had left the pet shop in a panic some of the pets decided to follow her up, but she had not responded to them yet.

"Blythe?" Zoe said. "Say something! Please!"

"Guys, just go... this doesn't concern you..." Blythe pleaded. She wanted to cope with this herself, without the pets being so close now.

"No, we're not going," Russell said. "It is obvious you need our help. Stat."

Blythe tried to relax for a bit, and then turned around. "Look guys, I'm really grateful that you're trying to help, but..."

"No but!" Zoe said.

"But yes! I need to do this myself!" Blythe said.

"And how are you going to do that?" Russell said. "Blythe, you need help!"

"But how can you help then?!" Blythe shouted at them. Directly after she said it, a small growl came from the girl's mouth. The pets - Zoe, Russell and Sunil, the latter whom had kept himself quiet until now - took a step back. Blythe immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean to."

Russell and Zoe didn't know what to think of it, and kept their mouths shut. Sunil came forward though.

"Blythe..." he began, "I do not know what caused it that you have cat ears. I do not know if the others and I can resolve it..." he took a deep breath. "But... you've always been there for us. And I want you to know that no matter what happens; we want to help you through it. I know it's hard, but... can you please open up for us?"

Everyone in the room was taken aback by the sudden speech of the mongoose.

That included Blythe as well - she came off from her bed and hugged Sunil. Zoe and Russell immediately joined in. "Thank you, guys," Blythe said.

After about half a minute Blythe let them go. Sunil was very satisfied by that, because he started to suffocate from the hug that Blythe gave him.

"Maybe... maybe because now I know more, I can look on the internet for answers!" Blythe said. She stood up and went to her own computer. _What search should I do first? 'I'm starting to purr and growing cat ears'? Well, that doesn't include that I can talk to animals... or maybe I should do 'talking to animals purring growing ears'?_

While she was thinking of the best direction to get into, Russell wanted to compliment Sunil on that speech that he just did. "That was impressive! How did you do that?" He asked Sunil, amazed.

"I learned it from an Indian B-movie I saw about a family in a war zone when I was just a little mongoose," he replied.

"Of... course..." the hedgehog replied, scratching himself behind his neck.

"Alright, guys!" Blythe said. "Laptop has started up, let me type in my password and we can begin!"

As Blythe typed in her password, she felt something was off. "What the what?" she mumbled. For Blythe it felt like wasps had bitten her a lot on the palm on her hand, except there was no pain involved.

That is when the realization dawned in.

* * *

"I don't think I'll have many speeches to snap her out of it if it happens more times, Russell..." Sunil said. "She'll probably get scared from the next thing that will happen."

"I don't care!" Russell said. "She needs to get behind that laptop and look for the stuff on the interwebs!"

Zoe mingled in their conversation. "Well, boys, it will take some time. Blythe is... not really used to her paws." She then stared at Blythe, who was once again in shock, as she tried to comfort her. Zoe saw what had happened to Blythe's hands. They were covered in paw pads, and her fingers were shortening to mere nubs. Blythe was still staring at them. Zoe knew that it would take a while before Blythe would calm down from that. And of course Zoe then had to comfort her.

But that job wouldn't become easier for her. It had been almost an hour since the three went up after Blythe, and not really much progress had been made in the meantime.

Then they heard noise coming out of the dumbwaiter. When Zoe looked she saw that Minka and Vinnie decided to follow up. Everyone downstairs of course started to worry and wanted to know what happened here. Penny Ling had stayed behind, though; she was too afraid to come up.

_Except for_ _Minka_, Zoe thought._ She is of course just curious._

"Heeeyyy guys, hehe, you were gone for so long so we wanted to know what's going on in here - " Vinnie said, but he then was cut off by Sunil.

"Vinnie, keep it down. Let Zoe do her job." Sunil said while pointing behind his back at Zoe and Blythe.

Minka was getting interested from that last statement. "Ooohhh her job? Is she going to give Blythe fashion advice for her costume party?"

Sunil scratched his neck. "Yeaahhh... about that..."

"Ooohh let me see! Eep!"

The pink spider monkey quickly went to Zoe and Blythe, who were both startled by Minka's energetic actions. Minka quickly jumped onto Blythe's head and inspected her ears. "This is all interesting... your ears have the exact same color as your hair! How did you do that?" She then went to Blythe's hands. "And those gloves are awesome! Where did you get these?"

Blythe's mouth went open from astonishment, while Zoe of course had to facepaw because of Minka's ridiculous act.

"Oh..." Minka said. "And you have really, really sharp teeth in your mouth!" She then jumped up. "BLYTHE IS WOLF-I-FIED! Eek!"

* * *

"...and here we go again..." Sunil mumbled.

Of course did the fact that her teeth changed not leave such a nice impact on the girl. She once again had completely zoned out. Minka's subtlety of course didn't work either. And Zoe, of course, was running out of tricks here. The only thing she could do now was lie against Blythe. That was all.

But Sunil was getting enough of it. Blythe just had to snap out of it and deal with this issue herself. He walked up to her and started using his speech-skills again. "Blythe..." he started, "I know this is really hard for you. Disastrous, even, but please, this is your own problem and we can only do so much. I know there are probably more issues on the way but can you go and try to at least deal with this problem? So can you please get up and let us help you deal with it?"

Blythe nodded. She then stood up, walked over to her desk and started typing in her password. She had to try it two times because her pads caused her to hit the wrong buttons, but she managed to get through it. Then, she opened up Google again and started searching.

Despite the fact that she now could use different search queries, the problem still remained; the only pages she could find were paranormal, made by animal behaviorists or someone with too much imagination. Nothing seemed to be of substance.

_What if there is no one out there like me? What if I'm really the only one? _Blythe thought.

After more than twenty minutes of searching she gave up; it didn't seem like there was any page out there that was of any substance to her. Defeated, she gave up. "I don't think there is anything, guys." she said. "I think we need to look for answers elsewhere."

The pets nodded. Blythe looked at them. "I guess your owners will pick you guys up in an hour or so. Just go downstairs, okay? I've got to do some things I need to take care of."

"But Blythe, we cannot leave you behind in such a state, you simply must -" Zoe said before she was interrupted.

"No," Blythe sternly said. "Your owners will come to pick you up anyway. Just let me do this, okay? I promise I can handle it."

The pets obeyed her and went downstairs. Besides, they wanted to tell Pepper and Penny Ling what had happened. When they went down the dumbwaiter, Blythe heard Vinnie make a remark how he doesn't think she'll be fine, and then how Zoe gave him a smack, and then a reaction reminiscent of 'Ow! What was that for'? Blythe tried to ignore it.

* * *

What Blythe told the pets wasn't an excuse - she really had things that needed to be done. She had to call in school that she was ill, and do the same towards Youngmee, Sue and Jasper - and of course apologize she wasn't in today. She could only hope that they wouldn't see this as an invitation to get over at her place, but that was an issue she could look at later. Another problem also started to arise; she started to feel a bit sore and had the feeling she needed some sleep. But she couldn't; there was stuff she had to take care of.

She picked up her mobile phone - her fingers were still just long enough to hold it - and dialed the number of the school. In the reflection of the phone, she saw that she had started to grow whiskers. This caused her to panic again.

_Focus, Blythe! Focus!_ She thought to herself.

Blythe called her school and notified them she was ill. Her voice had gotten a bit hoarse, so no one on the other side of the line had any reasons to not believe her.

_That was that... and now the others..._

That reminded her of someone very important to her.

_Dad._

Roger Baxter had gone on a large trip, so he wouldn't be back before Monday - and it was just Tuesday. She could notify him of what was going on, or he could find it out next week. She wanted to delay it. _Maybe everything will go back to normal before that and nobody will have to find out what had happened._

Could her dad cope with it? Blythe didn't know. She was quite afraid of what would happen to him and find out that his daughter was a cat girl... or an actual cat. He barely got over what had happened with mom, so she didn't want to think about how he would react.

_Relax, Blythe; _one problem at a time. She had to call Youngmee and Sue, at least to apologize why she didn't show up today.

_And shouldn't I notify Mrs. Twombly as well? She's expecting me to work tomorrow..._

_No; first Youngmee and Sue, then Mrs. Twombly. Youngmee and Sue are expecting me already as it is._

A Skype video call, like she usually did, was out of the question now; however, she could disable her webcam and claim it was broken. Or something. Instead she decided to just use her mobile phone. However, thinking became hard for her. She was just so sore and tired.

_Maybe I am stressing too hard. Maybe I should relax to get clear thoughts. _

That was all she could think at this point. She felt herself becoming more dizzy and disoriented, and she collapsed on her bed, forgetting she had to call people. Within a minute she was in slumberland, even though she didn't have her pajama's on or was even lying correctly.

It would become a dreamless night.


	4. The Pet Shop

The sunlight poured into Blythe's bedroom windows. It was the early morning and the birds had already started chirping their little songs.

Blythe slowly woke up from it. _This doesn't normally happen, _she thought. _Normally only my alarm clock can wake me. _She looked at her alarm clock. It showed that it was 7:45 AM. _Huh._

She then noticed how far her alarm clock was and how big her bed sheets were. _Well, that's odd. And why are my clothes so enormous and hanging around me like that? Just like if -_

_Oh no._

Blythe looked around, too scared to look at herself. She knew the inevitable had happened. She took a deep breath and decided to face it. When she looked at herself, she jumped backwards; the realization was now dawning in.

She was a cat.

She jumped off her bed and tried to walk to her desk. That is when she realized how easily she walked around on all fours, but decided to not further think about that. She then jumped from her chair onto her desk, allowing her to look at herself in the mirror nearby. She was stunned when she saw herself.

She had brown fur, the exact same color as her hair had been. Her paws were small, more similar to those of the guest pet Delilah rather than Youngmee's cat Sugar Sprinkles. Her hair wasn't totally gone; she had a lock of hair to the front of her head and one in the back of her head. She also had a long, but rather bland, tail. Her eyes had remained the same; if there was one trace of humanity left in her, Blythe reasoned, then it were her eyes.

Blythe just stood there for five minutes, examining herself. All this time she didn't make a sound; so concentrated she was at she saw before her. She didn't want to believe it was true. For her, it felt like - and she hoped that it was - that she was still asleep and in a few moments could just wake up from this.

But she knew she wouldn't.

An interruption soon came in; her tummy started to rumble. _Oh... and I don't think I have anything at home that I can eat... _she realized. Should she go downstairs, see if she could get food there? _Now, if I would do that, I would run into Mrs. Twombly..._

That made her realize something else.

_Wait... did I call her last night?!_

Blythe rushed over to her mobile phone, which she had left at her desk. She swiped over it - fortunately for her, it was a swipe-password - and opened up her history. _Boy, am I lucky this thing has a touchscreen, _Blythe thought. _Otherwise I could never do this. _Blythe went over her history. Her last call was with school to report she was ill. _At least school isn't going to suspect anything for a while..._

A while. That is all it was, a while. Soon, people would miss her, then she would be reported as missing, then the police would make investigations of it, find a cat in the house that doesn't belong there, and then they would state that she was a runaway kid. And in the end, nobody would know what had happened to her. Blythe shuddered at the thought.

She didn't want to think about what her father then must go through. And yet, it seemed to her like that was the most probably outcome of all this. She blinked for a moment, and then looked at her alarm clock again. _8:12 AM. The pets are probably already over at the pet shop._

Blythe took a deep breath, and began thinking about her options. She could try to stay in here and hope it would wear off soon. She would have a hard time with what is in the kitchen, but she could probably survive on all the stuff that cats could eat. _Now, what did we have again that I could eat? Some meatloaf, some milk and a couple of sardines... maybe some candy as well._

_No! Bad idea! I could not last over a day. And I don't want to make a mess of things while trying to get the milk in a bowl or something... and I don't think I will last long on M&M's and potato chips. _She had other options though. _What if I can persuade Mrs. Twombly that I'm really me?_

Going to Youngmee, Sue or anyone else at this point was quite hard, but Mrs. Twombly seemed to be the best option. No one would be baffled that there is a new cat in the pet shop, and Mrs. Twombly of course would be the best person who can deal with this.

_In any case she would handle it better than Jasper..._

She smirked as she thought that. Jasper and Sue really wouldn't be the best options; not just because they probably wouldn't be able to handle it, but also because having a new cat would get some questions from people.

That, and of course the question if their parents would allow it.

_Mrs. Twombly it is, then_.

Telling Mrs. Twombly that it is her wouldn't be hard - she just had to write "I am Blythe" somewhere. Or just speak to her. _Wait, what if I can still talk?_

Blythe tried to talk. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

She heard herself say it, but they came out like simple yowls.

_So much for that option._

Blythe sighed. She knew she had to go downstairs and face the music. She left her mobile phone at her desk and went downstairs via the dumbwaiter. She had little difficulty doing so. She considered that wasn't actually very strange. _The pets were able to do it, so why not me?_

When she got downstairs, she saw that all of them had arrived and were watching TV. All except Minka, who was busy on her newest artwork. Blythe slowly walked into the room. After a few seconds did Minka take note of her.

"Oooohh we got a new visitor!" Minka exclaimed. She immediately went over to the cat and began inspecting her. "She's amazing!"

When the other pets turned around, they immediately knew who it was before their eyes. The only one who didn't realize it was Minka. "Oohh... what's your name? Is it Pringles? Are you made of chocolate with that brown coat?"

"Minka - " Blythe said.

"Do you like paintings? Have you ever been to Icelandia?" Minka rambled on.

"MINKA!" All the pets - and Blythe - shouted to get her to stop.

"What...?" did Minka say, startled.

"Minka, dear, can you not realize that this is Blythe?"

"Blythe?" Minka said. "Of course this isn't Blythe. Blythe had that really awesome werewolf-party last night where she had those ears and those teeth and those gloves and this cat over here," she said while pointing at Blythe, "...only has the same coat color as Blythe's hair and the exact same eyes..."

It took a while before Minka got the full picture.

"Eeek! Eeek! It IS Blythe!" Minka shouted. She then started to bounce around the room. "Why did no one tell me?!"

The pets rolled their eyes or just facepawed.

Penny Ling then turned to Blythe. "So you really DID turn into a cat..." she said, filled with curiosity and compassion. "How do you feel, Blythe?"

"Ehm," Blythe said, trying not to hurt the Panda's feelings, "Pretty fine, I guess. Thanks for asking."

Blythe then turned to the door. "I've got to talk to Mrs. Twombly, guys," she said. "I need to find a way to become myself again, and I hope that Mrs. Twombly can help me in the meantime."

_Hopefully, _she thought as she went through the cat flap.

Vinnie, who had heard everything Blythe said, of course had to state his opinion. "Why does she want to be a girl again? We have been pets all our lives and we are doing just fine!"

"You did NOT just say that," Zoe sternly said to him.

"What? It's true!"

"Let me make you an example; do you know how my life is so different since I failed the chance to become a model?"

"Ugh, tell me about it! We constantly hear you talking about all that!" Vinnie countered her.

Zoe wanted to slap the gecko, but decided not to. "Well, she has it a hundred times worse! Do you realize that that girls' life is now completely thrown away? All the possibilities she had to get further into fashion, her caring for us, her love from her father an her friends and who knows what else?!"

That made the little gecko think about what he said. "Now, if you put it that way..."

"Exactly! And we have got to find a way to get her back to normal! We owe that to her!"

Sunil then interjected. "But... how are we going to do that? I seriously have no clue where to start!"

Zoe felt silent. She knew that Sunil was right. They had zero leads on where to go next.

Hopefully Blythe could persuade Mrs. Twombly that it was really her in that cat body.

* * *

"Oh no, Fisher Biskit! Not this time! This time I will get that doorknob!" Anna Twombly shouted to her laptop. "This one is MINE!" She quickly went over her keyboard to make the final purchase. "Mwuahahahaha!" she manically laughed.

Blythe shuddered a bit from seeing her like that, but she was used to Mrs. Twombly's weird actions that she did sometimes. Her only concern was that she was so big. The other pets came at eye height - except for Penny Ling who was obviously larger than her - but Mrs. Twombly was a giant!

_Are all humans that intimidating to pets? _Blythe thought. _Then again, the pets seem to be okay with it. Maybe I just need to get used to it._

She looked at her surroundings. _Now I need to find a way to draw a message to Mrs. Twombly..._

Blythe realized that she didn't really have a plan of sorts on how to deal with this. Nonetheless, she reckoned drawing a small message saying 'I am Blythe' shouldn't be too hard.

"Yes! Yes! I have it! Got you now, Fisher Biskit! This time, I am victorious!"

Mrs. Twombly was so preoccupied with her victory that she didn't notice he small brown cat walking next to the cash desk. This allowed Blythe to get up on there. She then noticed that there was a small bag of powder on the cash desk.

_Perfect. Now, Mrs. T., hold tight for a moment..._

Blythe gracefully jumped on top of the cash desk and pulled the bag of powder open. Mrs. Twombly was só excited about her doorknob-victory that she didn't know that there was a cat right next to her. Blythe, as quickly as she could, wrote the message 'It's me, Blythe' with the powder. _What kind of powder is this, anyway? _After she was done, she allowed herself to look on the bag. It said 'Pet Washing Powder'

_They're making washing powder for pets now? What the huh?_

Blythe didn't get much of the stuff on her, except for her right hand - or, right front paw. _Well, at least I'm still right handed... _she thought as she examined her paw.

Mrs. Twombly, now out of her victory-crapulence, noticed the cat on the cash desk. "Well, hi there sweetie!" she then noticed the powder and the drawing the cat made. "Well, that isn't really nice of you. I guess I should put you in the daycare. But what a nice drawing you made!"

Mrs. Twombly took a good ten seconds to look at the 'drawing', but didn't seem to get that Blythe actually had written something there. _What the what? _Blythe thought. _How does she not notice that? _She then noticed she was being picked up by Mrs. Twombly. "Well then, aren't you a cutie!" Mrs. Twombly inspected the cat for a second. "No collar, no chip, no tattoo... but no, you're not a tramp either, aren't you, sweetie? No, you have been very well looked after!" she then dragged the cat to the daycare. "But I really need to tell your owners they actually need to check you in first..."

Blythe protested. "But it's me! Blythe! Can't you recognize me?"

"Now, there," Mrs. Twombly tried to comfort her, "there is no need to meow like that. It's a really nice place here and the other pets are really nice too, you'll see." she then looked into Blythe's eyes. "Huh. Those eyes remind me of someone."

_Yes! Me, of course! _Blythe thought. But she knew there was no way to convince Mrs. Twombly that it really wás her. _And at the end of the day everyone will be picked up - except me._

_I'll need a new plan._

Mrs. Twombly opened the door to the daycare. "Hello there, sweeties! You'll have a new guest today! I don't know her name though, but I'm sure you can get acquainted." She put Blythe down and then went back to her cash desk.

"I guess it didn't work?" Russell asked as soon as Mrs. Twombly left.

Blythe nodded.

"What we need to do is come up with a plan! We need to find clues on how to solve this!" Russell stated.

"But what can we do?" Blythe asked. "I'm hardly a detective or something."

"But I am!" Russell answered.

"Huh?"

* * *

Before Blythe could react properly to what Russell said, everything suddenly transformed. All of a sudden she wasn't in the pet shop anymore, but in what seemed to be Victorian London. When she looked at herself, she seemed to be wearing a dress and a hat - she was still a cat though.

The other pets were here as well - all of them wearing Victorian clothing.

"I'm Cyril McFlip once again, and here to discover why Blythe is now a cat!" She heard Russell sing.

_What the huh?_

"No human can help her, but this pet has some tricks in his head!"

_What is going on?_

"Welcome to our fantasy, Blythe!" Minka whispered in her ear. The monkey then went away as quickly as she appeared.

In the meantime, Russell continued with his singing. "Just yesterday morning nobody noticed anything that would lead to Blythe's demise,  
but then she became a cat right before our very eyes!  
She's our very best friend, and for her we'll find a way,  
even if for the answer we would have to go very far away!"

Then suddenly Blythe heard a choir made out of the female pets.

"Cyril McFlip! Cyril McFlip! He always gets to the bottom of it! He can solve any mystery, for he's the best detective in history!"

Blythe was now utterly confused as to what was going on.

"What we need to consider, my friends, " Russell continued, "is that this may have happened before!  
Maybe it happened before there even was a pet store!"

Blythe had heard the pets sing before - even Youngmee and her mother sang a song once - but she never saw anything like this. It felt like she was really in London, not still in the pet shop where the pets were just singing like normal.

"Maybe Blythe's ability to talk to animals has got something to do with this!  
That surely is something we cannot dismiss!"

The rest of the song was hard to follow for Blythe - she just took in the scenery and the clothes that the pets were wearing, trying to make any sense of what was going on. And she, despite not trying to pay attention to it, enjoyed the catchy tune that the pets had too.

_I'm definitely not in Downtown City anymore..._

"...for he's the best detective in history!"

* * *

As sudden as the fantasy had begun, it ended.

_It looks like I'm back in the pet shop. _Blythe blinked to make sure she was back in reality. The dress was gone, so that seemed to be true. _I think I'm back._

"Fear not, my dear pets!" Russell stated, almost with a triumphant tone. "For I have a plan!"

He took his notepad and started writing something on it. "I think I may have the answer to all our problems!" He then turned to Blythe. "And Blythe?"

"Hmm?"

"I am going to need your help to let this plan succeed!"


	5. The Notebook

"But... what do I need to do then?" Blythe asked.

"Well, here's the plan!" Russell announced. He showed the notes he made on his notepad. "We've got to find out who else this occurred to in the past, and that they did to solve it! And then we have to look at what was here wáááy before there even was a pet shop!"

"Oh! You mean Mrs. Twombly's great-great-grandmother?" Blythe asked.

Russell nodded. "Exactly. As you might know, we found that chest and there was a small book inside it. Maybe it can show us something!"

_That actually is quite a good idea, _Blythe thought. _I didn't even think about that._

"So, Blythe, do you know where the book is?" Russell asked her.

"What the what? Uh, no," the cat replied. "I have no idea where it is. Except for the fact that Mrs. Twombly has it."

"And how are we then going to get it?" Minka asked.

"I think the first question should be; where has she left it?" Pepper asked to no one in particular, pondering her thoughts.

"Maybe in her office?" Sunil suggested.

"It had a lot of really tasty recipes in there! I'd say it's in her kitchen!" Minka said.

"Or what about Mrs. Twombly's cash desk? Maybe she has it in one of her drawers?" Penny Ling said.

"Or maybe she keeps it in her bedroom, to read it every evening!" Russell suggested.

"Or she has it in the living room, in a bookcase!" Vinnie said.

Blythe knew she had to interfere here - everyone was just making random guesses where the book could be, and in the end they would have to search the entire apartment of Mrs. Twombly. _Maybe narrowing it a bit down will help. _"Uh, guys," Blythe said. "I don't think this is going to help us. I think we need to just go to her apartment and look through the best places there. I think I know where to look"

"And how are we going to get into her apartment?" Minka asked.

"I think it best if Russell, Sunil and I are going there. In the meantime, I want the rest to provide a distraction for Mrs. Twombly."

The other pets nodded. This really seemed like the most logical option for everyone to do. Of course they could only hope that the book was in Mrs. Twombly's apartment. And that it contained the information they were looking for.

"I can do the distraction!" Minka asked. "Do me! Do me! Do me! Eek!"

Blythe nodded. "Minka can perform the distraction. Russell, Sunil; are you guys okay with my plan?"

The two saluted her. "Yes, lady! Let's do this!" Russell said.

"I'm all in for it!" Sunil said.

"Alright," Blythe said. "This is how we're going to do it; Sunil, Russell, follow me to the back of the shop. Do it quietly. Then, when we're at the back of the shop, Minka can start with her distraction. While she distracts Mrs. Twombly, the guys and I will walk into her apartment and start looking for it. Now, make sure to -"

Blythe was suddenly interrupted mid-sentence because Mrs. Twombly came in. "Hello there, sweeties! I cannot get Blythe on the phone, so I guess I'll have to feed you now!"

All the pets suddenly ran away towards Mrs. Twombly, leaving Blythe behind. Since there seemed to be no point in standing around, she decided to join them.

"I'm not going in there without an empty stomach! It is not good for a pet!" Sunil said as an excuse while indulging into his food.

"Sorry, Blythe, but I really cannot skip this!" Russell said.

Blythe rolled her eyes. She could've expected this.

"Here, sweetie, this is for you," Mrs. Twombly said. She then put a bowl filled with cat food near Blythe, followed with Mrs. Twombly petting her. Blythe found this feeling of being petted weird. Nobody had done that to her since mom. _No! Do not think about mom! _Then, Mrs. Twombly stood up and went to the door. "Have a nice dinner, sweeties!" she said before leaving. Mrs. Twombly then went off to go help a customer.

Blythe looked for a moment at the cat food. It reminded her that she was still hungry. But she didn't really want to eat cat food. _Should I eat this?_

"Come on, Blythe! I won't bite back!" Vinnie said.

"I... I..." Blythe stammered. "Not now. Maybe later." She then turned around to look over Russell's notes.

A few seconds after Blythe walked away, Vinnie once again had to point something out about her. "Really, what is up with her?"

Zoe almost couldn't stand his behavior anymore. "Vinnie! She lost her life and is now forced to eat something she had never eaten before! Show some compassion!"

"Uh... okay."

Blythe ignored the gecko. She just wanted to find a way to become human again. She took another look at Russell's notes. Most of it didn't look valuable at all. _I think most of this is just... weird stuff. _Despite that, she appreciated the effort the pets were putting into getting a plan going. _Their loyalty is still with their stomach, though... or am I asking too much from them here? _Blythe took a good look at the food. She knew she was hungry. _Maybe I can avoid having to eat cat food,_ she reasoned. _If I'm a human within a few hours, I can just go upstairs and have a real lunch. _But she knew that she couldn't keep that up for a long time. _Maybe just a few nibbles to dull the worst hunger? _Blythe reasoned with herself that she could eat just enough to prevent herself from being distracted from starvation. _But not more than that._

She slowly moved forward to join the other pets, and took a good look at the bowl filled with cat food. _Here goes nothing... _she put her head forward and took a nibble. She knew she didn't even use her hands or anything, but she knew she had to. Blythe then tasted what cat food was. It tasted like really bland ham with gravy. It wasn't an awful taste, but the lack of taste - and the fact that it was cat food - slightly disturbed her. _I suppose it'll do. _Blythe decided to just to keep eating to get it done as soon as possible.

She had her bowl half-way empty when she stopped eating. _That should be enough for now. _She had no idea how much she actually should eat at a time. Well, she knew how big portions should be for dogs, skunks, panda's and all that; but since there were barely any cats in the day care since she started working there, she didn't know anything about cats. _I think I'll know it soon enough. I'll just have to follow my stomach._

Blythe noticed the others were done by now, so she figured it was a good time to go on with the plan. "Can you guys go ahead with the plan?" she asked.

"Sure thing!" Russell said. "We can start anytime you like!"

"I am at your ser-ser-service, milady!" Minka excitedly said. "Let's do this!"

Blythe smiled. She knew her pet friends wouldn't let her down. She walked over to the door and used the cat flap. She saw that a customer just went into the store. _Now's our chance. _She winked to the others to follow her, and they followed suit. Blythe, Sunil and Russell slowly but steadily walked over to the back of the shop.

_I hope Minka understands what she needs to do._

Minka surely understood what was needed to be done - before the three even reached the back of the shop, she performed a small scene by playing around with the birdcage in the display window.

"Ooh... isn't that adorable..." the customer said. Mrs. Twombly only nodded, and allowed Minka to play.

Blythe knew her chance was now "Let's go!" she whispered to Russell and Sunil.

The three quickly slipped through the back of the shop into Mrs. Twombly's apartment. Blythe didn't want to break into her place, but she reasoned that the situation kind of forced her to.

Blythe had been in Mrs. Twombly's apartment before - a few times, to be exact. But now that she was a cat, everything was so different. She had, until now, only seen her own bedroom. Now she saw a hall, a living room and a kitchen. It reminded her how small she bad become.

"I'll go look in the kitchen," Blythe said. "You guys go look in the living room. Don't try to make a mess of things, okay? Leave everything where it was!"

The two pets nodded and went into the living room. The reason that Blythe had chosen to do the kitchen herself was that she was afraid the pets would cause a gigantic mess if she allowed them to search there. And she didn't want Mrs. Twombly to notice pets had been in her apartment.

Blythe walked into the kitchen, and then jumped from a chair onto the counter. She looked around for a moment, trying to see where Mrs. Twombly would have left her cookbooks.

_There!_

The cookbooks were on top of a cabinet. They were lying on their sides, so Blythe had to turn her head around to read on the sides to what they were saying. _'cooking for dummies...', '101 meals with chicken...' 'How to prevent burning juice...' really? I didn't know you could burn juice. Anyway; 'How to make a perfect Christmas dinner...'_

On top of the stack of books there was a small, old, brown notebook. _I guess this is it. Now, how can I take it...?_

Blythe tried to jump onto the counter, but failed to reach even the topside with her front paws, causing her to fall back onto the counter. _I'll need help for this one. _She jumped off from the counter and went to the living room. There, Sunil and Russell were reading the sides of the books in Mrs. Twombly's bookcase.

"So, Blythe, any luck finding it?" Sunil asked.

Blythe smiled. "I found it!" she then frowned a bit. "I only am unable to reach it."

Russell joined the two. "So... where is it?"

"On top of a cabinet in the kitchen. I cannot reach it." Blythe explained.

"Show me," Russell said.

The three went to the kitchen, and Blythe showed them where the book was.

"I don't think the three of us will make it up there! We need to find someone who can." Russell said.

"I agree," Blythe said. "But who?"

"Minka?" Sunil suggested.

Russell and Blythe agreed that was a good idea. _However... we'll need to get Minka then out of her distraction, then in here, and then have her grab that book without throwing the other ones on the ground._

_This is going to get difficult._

"Let's go get Minka, then," Blythe said. "Who wants to volunteer this time as distraction?"

"I'll do it!" both Russell and Sunil said in unison.

"Thanks, guys," Blythe said, smiling a bit, "but I'll only need one for this job. Hm... Russell, you can do it!"

"Yes, milady!"

"Sunil, you can go back to the pet shop," Blythe said.

"Oh, come on! Why?" Sunil protested.

"Because the more pets we have in here, the noisier it gets. We can't have her taking a look here when she starts to suspect something!" Blythe explained. In reality, she found that the more pets were in here, the more would have nothing to do and thus cause noise while cheering the others. She knew her little friends too well to know that they would be silent. _Then again, I have to give them credit that they didn't cause any mess in the living room..._

"Okay guys; you go get Minka, I'll stay back here!" Blythe said. The two pets saluted and turned around. "And tell her to stay quiet!" Blythe added to it while the two were leaving. Russell and Sunil went out the door and back into the pet shop, while Blythe stayed behind.

_Hopefully, Minka knows what to do._

Blythe stayed put for almost a few minutes. She didn't hear anything, but she suspected that it would take a while before Minka would be able to get in here. Russell, of course, had to provide a distraction and it was harder for Mrs. Twombly to notice the hedgehog rather than a monkey. _Maybe I should've put Zoe on this instead..._

She curled up, her paws underneath her body. It took her a moment to realize that she was sitting in a position a cat would, but decided to do nothing about it. It was comfortable enough, and thus she let it slide.

"I'm here!" she suddenly heard in her right ear. Blythe immediately turned sideways and stood up, and saw that it was Minka standing there. "Now, where is that book you're looking for?" she asked.

"Uhm..." Blythe said, a bit startled by Minka's sudden presence, "It's in the kitchen, on the top of a cabinet. Please make sure that you don't topple over the other books on - "

"Okidoki!"

Before Blythe could react, the spider monkey had already gone into the kitchen. When Blythe followed her in, she saw that Minka jumped on top of the fridge, then to the hanging lamp before jumping onto the cabinet. Blythe clenched her teeth, but was then positively surprised that Minka didn't topple over any of the books. She then took the old notebook and brought it back down.

"Minka, you're amazing!" Blythe said, startled.

"This is the job you leave to Minka! Eek!"

"Now let's get back to the pet shop!" Blythe said. Minka took the book in her hands and took it back to the day care. Blythe followed suit. Fortunately, when they came into the store Mrs. Twombly was talking with another customer, so she didn't suspect anything going on.

"You've made it!" Zoe excitedly said when she saw the cat and spider monkey coming through the cat flap.

"Thank you for helping me out, guys," Blythe said. "Now, should we read through this thing?"

Russell nodded. "We should! Gimme that, Minka!"

Minka didn't want to give up that precious treasure she retrieved, but obeyed and handed over the notebook. Russell then started going through the pages. "Most of these are recipes for pet food... I don't know if there is anything here..."

Blythe was nervous. What if they didn't have the right book? Then they would have no clue on where to go next. Would there then be any way for her to become herself again?

"Ah! Here!" Russell said. Blythe stood up and ran over to Russell. "Really? Show me!"

"The second half of this notebook is some sort of diary... now I need to find something that we need."

Blythe took over the notebook from Russell - even though he protested - and she went through the pages. It was written by Mrs. Twombly's great-great-grandmother, a lady who had seven pets and lived in her own log cabin in the forest. Most of the entries just talked about the ups and downs of her life.

But then she saw something that peaked her interest. "Guys, I think you want to hear this!" Blythe said to the pets. The pets gathered around her. When they were all there, Blythe started reading out loud.

"This morning I was greeted by a German Shepard dog, wearing the hat and some of the clothes of our beloved sheriff. I tried to talk to the dog, and the dog wrote down in the sand that is wás her! I had no idea what to do, so I took the dog with me to people who may had some answers. The Biskit brothers were a waste of my time; I had to go to the Indian shaman nearby to look for answers. And he had some!"

"Oohhh!" the pets said in unison. Blythe grinned. _Would this have the answers I need?_

"The shaman had heard about it before, but never seen it happening. According to the shaman, it would only happen to those who were gifted by the ability to talk to animals!"

"Oohhh!"

"The shaman said that there are ways to make the sheriff human again, but that I have to be quick about it. If the sheriff is still a dog at the end of the fourth day after she got fully transformed, then..."

Blythe stopped reading out loud to her pets.

"What is it?" Russell asked her.

Blythe, shocked, read the last sentence. "Then... the sheriff will be a pet forever."


	6. The Park

"4 days...?" Penny Ling asked. "Then we've got no time to loose! Blythe, what does it say about a cure?!"

"Calm down Penny Ling," Russell said. "It's not four hours, it says four days. And that is more than enough..." he hesitated for a moment. "...if the cures don't take that long..."

Blythe gulped, and then continued reading. "The shaman told us there are several cures. The first is to go on a cliff and throw oneself into the depth. When the person would reach the ground, they would instantly become human again."

"Uhhh... hehe, I don't think there are many cliffs around downtown!" Vinnie said.

"We have skyscrapers!" Pepper objected. "Maybe Blythe can jump from there!"

If Blythe didn't have fur, she would look pale now. "I am not going to jump off a twenty-story building!" she said. "End of discussion!"

She ignored any kind of objection, and continued reading. "The second is to bathe for an hour in a tub filled with Jabuticaba-juice..."

"Ooohhh!" Minka said. "I ate those during our trip to Brazil! They were jummy!"

"You know where to get it?" Russell said.

Minka nodded. "In Brazil!" She then hesitated. "...but not here. I've never seen them here, actually."

"So we can't get them at the local supermarket?" Pepper asked.

Blythe sighed. "It says here that it wants more exotic fruits in there. Also something called a 'physalis'. I think we need to look for more cures..."

She went a bit further. "There is another solution."

"And that is?" Sunil asked.

"Synthesis; 'add your energy to the crucible'." Blythe made a puzzled face, a couple of her whiskers coming into her view. "Okay, now comes in a part with a whole lot of gibberish about existence. I think I need to skip this."

"I have the feeling these words caused millions of voices to suddenly cry out in terror and then were suddenly silenced." Sunil said. "Can you please go to the next part?"

"The last option," Blythe said, "Is for the recipient to find their true love."

"So... we need to find you your true love?" Sunil asked. "And who might that be, then?"

"Oh! Oh! Choose me! Choose me!" Minka said, cheeringly.

Blythe just ignored Minka. "Look, guys, I have no idea who my true love is. And I don't think going on a date looking like... this," she pointed at her own cat self, "...is going to work. And I don't think we pets can get all those fruits for that bath, I don't want to jump off a high building and I have absolutely no clue what that crucible-stuff was about." She sighed and looked down at the ground. "Gimme a sec. I want to be alone to think about this."

She walked away from the group and went into the fire hydrant. There she sat down and curled up, putting her tail put behind her forelegs. The other pets left behind in confusion.

That, except for Minka. "Ohhh she is now going to make up which solution she wants! I'm just gonna go painting!" She went over to her painting tools. "Which color should I choose today, boys? Red, green or blue?"

"I don't care!" Sunil said.

Russell picked up the book Blythe left behind. "I'm just going to read in it a bit further. Maybe I can come up with something!" He then walked away, but not before he mumbled "besides, those pet meals really look delicious!"

"Uhm..." Penny Ling said, "What else can we do?"

"I don't think we can do anything right now," Pepper said. "I really don't have a clue!" she then turned to her attributes. "...I'm just going to work on my new comedy act!"

"And I'm going to work on my newest trick!" Sunil said.

"Uhm... guys..." Penny Ling said. "But what about Blythe then?"

* * *

"I'm not going to throw myself off a twenty-story building!" Blythe reasoned with herself. "No, I'm just gonna go outside and find the love of my life! I'm sure he's eating his catnip right now! Or... something..."

"Uhm, Blythe?"

Blythe turned around to see that it was Penny Ling. That caused her to perk up her ears and raise her tail. "Hey, Penny Ling! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing, really," Penny Ling said.

"Come on, Penny Ling," Blythe said. "What are you here for?"

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," Penny Ling said. "The others just walked away and I... I..."

Blythe purred a bit from knowing that Penny Ling cared for her. "The others are just defeated as well, Penny Ling. The only one who can do anything right now is me."

"But we can help you!" Penny Ling objected.

"You guys can support me, and I'm grateful that you're doing that," Blythe said. "But this is something I got to do myself."

"I know," Penny Ling said. "But all this makes me feel so helpless. I wish I could do something!"

"You're here for me," Blythe said. "You're already doing something." she purred and then nuzzled Penny Ling a bit.

"Uh... Blythe?"

Blythe realized what she was doing and quitted it. "Uh, oh, sorry Penny Ling," she said. "I guess I'm already part cat inside..."

_Could this become worse? I've been walking like a cat since the beginning, I'm purring, I can eat cat food 'normally', now I'm nuzzling..._

Blythe pondered her thoughts but didn't really come to a conclusion.

"You alright, Blythe?" Penny Ling asked.

"I will be," Blythe said. She sighed and looked into the daycare. _Hard to believe I'm a cat for just four hours now..._

"Oooh sweeties!" she heard Mrs. Twombly say. "Time for your walk!"

* * *

Blythe found it weird having that around her neck. It felt wrong. She had done it so many countless times to the pets, but to have that on herself, kind of made her anxious. She didn't know where that fear was coming from.

"Come on, Blythe! It will be fun!" Vinnie said. "Zoe even brought her ball today!"

"Hm-m." Blythe said. _So here I am. On a leash, going to the park to play. _She sighed. _And I have just 3-and-a-half days to do one of the weirdest cures ever to make myself human again._

Walking over the sidewalk on bare paws was a weird experience for Blythe. It wasn't painful or anything for her, but it was simply odd and kept reminding her of her current disposition.

It didn't take long before they got to the park - Blythe knew the route well. She had walked it countless times before.

When they got there, Mrs. Twombly untied everyone's leash. "Now, don't stray off to far, sweeties! And have fun!"

Blythe was relieved she was put off the leash, although she knew that in fifteen minutes she would have it put back on again. She looked around and saw that the other pets - as usual - were already indulging themselves in their normal park-activities.

"Come on, Blythe!" Zoe said. "Come join us!"

"Uh... okay!" Blythe said. _When in Rome..._

Zoe played along with the ball, together with Pepper, Sunil and now also Blythe. For Penny Ling the game was too intimidating, so she just sat by the sidelines. For Blythe the game was quite simple, but at least she had some enjoyment doing so with her friends. Well, the game was more ''pass the ball over to the other pets'' than really a game.

"Blythe! Blythe!" Minka suddenly yelled. "Come quickly!"

Blythe dropped the ball that she had in her teeth and went over to Minka. _Wait... did I really put that in my mouth? SEVERAL TIMES?_

"I found your solution! Come quickly!" Minka yelled at her.

Blythe tried to forget for a moment what she had been doing with that ball and focused on Minka. "What solution?" Blythe asked, but Minka didn't hear her.

Blythe followed Minka for a while and they came at the edge of the park. "Where is the solution? Actually, which solution are you talking about?" Blythe asked her.

"That cubicle-thingy! I saw it, right there!" Minka said. "Now only to find the syn-the-the, and you're going to be just fine, Blythe!"

Blythe didn't understand what Minka meant, except for the fact that Minka once again was talking nonsense. "Minka, there is no such thing as what you're talking about. And please come back! I don't think Mrs. Twombly is going to be okay with this!"

"Mrs. Twombly? This is your life, Blythe! Follow me!" Minka said. "Eek!"

Blythe followed Minka, but that was only because she wanted her to get back to the group. As much as she wanted to be human again, just randomly running through the streets would get her nowhere. And Blythe knew that.

"There it is!" Minka said. "The cubicle!"

Blythe slowly walked forward. There was only concrete here. She didn't understand what Minka meant. But she sure enough recognized this place from something.

"On the roof!" Minka said. "There it is! Get in there to get vaporized!"

"Eh?" Blythe asked.

"Well, that's what the book said!"

"Minka, what the notebook said was gibberish. And that thing on the roof isn't a cubicle, it's an advertisement because we're at Largest Ever..." she hesitated for a moment. "Minka, we need to get back to the park, right now!"

"What?"

"INTRUDER ALERT - INTRUDER ALERT - APPREHEND THE INTRUDERS FROM STORAGE PLATFORM" the two suddenly heard. When they turned around, they saw it was the robot that Largest Ever Pet shop had.

"Minka! Run!" Blythe yelled.

Minka ran via the rooftops back to the park, but Blythe wasn't so lucky. She was captured by the robot, now to be put in one if its small cages. "Minka! Tell the others!" she yelled to Minka before she was taken inside.

_I've no collar, no tattoo and no chip. _Blythe thought. _I will never get out of there! I need to escape!_

_But how?_

* * *

**Author note: I will be gone for a while, but I will keep writing and uploading chapters when I get access to the internet. Please read, review (and be harsh so I know what to improve) and share if you enjoyed it!**


	7. Largest Ever Pet Shop

It went all very quickly for Blythe. One moment she was on the storage path of the Largest Ever Pet Shop, the next she was being hauled in by its security robot and put into one of the small cages they kept animals in. The whole set of events was within the timeframe of one minute, making it very hard for Blythe to follow what had happened and before she knew it, she knew there was no escape.

She also knew what this meant; she would be kept in here until someone bought her or someone would come to picked her up. But since only the pets knew about her predicament, nobody would be picking her up. A rescue party by the pets was also unlikely, especially since last time all of them would get captured if not for Blythe herself to save the day.

Blythe knew what was going to happen; she was going to stay here until someone was going to buy her. And that happening within the next three-and-a-half days was very unlikely. That, and then she would have to do one of those vague solutions to make herself human again.

And if she couldn't do both of these objectives, she would become a cat forever. That realization made something loose inside her. Now she finally realized exactly what was at stake. She broke out of the initial shock and opened her mouth.

"Oh no! Oh no, no, no, no!" Blythe yelled out in terror. "It cannot end like this!"

_Maybe I should have jumped off a building after all. _"What am I to do?!"

"It ended like this for all of us, sister," a voice to her left said. Blythe reckoned it had to be a ferret. She couldn't see him though, since there were walls between the pets. "Better get used to it. Perhaps, if you're acting nice, the two evil abominations will give you a treat or something."

Blythe ignored the ferret and instead turned around to look at her surroundings. _So this is what it must feel like to be in one of these cages._ It was just a concrete cube with a plastic transparent door at the front of it with breathing holes in them. To her right there was a bowl filled with water and one bowl with kibble.

_Those look dry and nasty. How can any pet eat them?_

Looking at that dry kibble made her actually sigh in relief. She was glad she already ate better pet food at the Littlest Pet Shop before going off to the park.

But she knew she would have to eat this food sooner or later.

_But not for now._

Blythe, defeated, couldn't do anything but sit tight.

_I will get out of here. It will not end with me being a cat for the rest of my life. The others will free me, I'm sure of it!_

She tried to calm herself down by lying down on her belly and then putting her tail behind her forelegs.

_What are the others doing right now?_

* * *

"Minka, how could you lose Blythe?!" Sunil asked Minka.

At this moment, they were all called back by Mrs. Twombly. The latter then noticed the cat was missing, but couldn't find her. Mrs. Twombly figured she just had to go back to the Littlest Pet Shop and face the anger from the owners of that strange cat. Or at least, so she thought. So she took the rest of the pets with her back to LPS.

"Well…" Minka said in response to Sunil, "I found the Cubicle, but then the Catalyst snatched Blythe away! And now she's busy choosing a solution!"

"Minka, that's the security robot from the Largest Ever Pet shop you're talking about!" Zoe said. "That's the only one that snatches away pets! Or…" she hesitated, "at least I think so. In any case, she's probably right now at the Largest Ever Pet shop! We'll never get her out of there!"

"So…" Vinnie said. "Am I the only one who thinks this is probably for the best? She will be sold and then she will have owners, and then she will come back to us in the day care! It will be the perfect solution for her problem!"

He immediately got a smack from Pepper. "Hey! What was that for?"

"For saying some really dumb things! Can't you remember that Blythe only has until Friday afternoon until she becomes a cat forever? She'll never get sold before that!"

"But I was talking about her getting a good pet life, with owners, just like all of us!" Vinnie objected.

He then got a smack from Zoe. "And what about her human life that is almost completely gone?!"

"Oh, yeah, right," Vinnie said. "There was that too."

Penny Ling ignored Vinnie and instead wanted to focus on the problem at hand.

"But how are we going to get Blythe out of there?" Penny Ling asked the other pets. "That place is like a fortress!"

"Hey! I've got an idea!" Sunil said. "Maybe we can use those tubes we discovered when we followed those hamsters!"

"We've disbanded those!" Russell said.

"Oh, wait, you're correct. Hm…" Sunil thought. "What if we made a distraction and then take Blythe out of there, make her human and then let her get the others out of her with her human authority?"

"…if we can make her human again…" Russell said. "Otherwise, we'll be locked up there forever!"

"We'll just go there and make a plan as we go along!" Penny Ling said. "We can't leave our friend Blythe in there!"

"Is she actually in the Largest Ever Pet shop?" Pepper asked the group. "All I've heard is that Minka rambled about that Catalyst guy who…"

"…took Blythe into Largest Ever Pet shop to provide her a solution! Eek!"

The skunk sighed. "Never mind."

It didn't take long for the group to get back to Littlest Pet Shop. "Okay, sweeties, we're back," Mrs. Twombly said. "But I'm not happy you let our guest escape! And I can't risk you getting the same idea, it could ruin my business! I'm sorry sweeties, but I'm keeping you locked up for today!"

All the pets gasped. When they got back inside, Russell find broke the silence.

"Noooooooooooo!"

* * *

Blythe had awoken from her nap. _How long have I been out of it? _From where she was, she could see a clock hanging on the wall.

_15:30. _

_It's already in the afternoon. Sue, Jasper and Youngmee must be getting out of school now… and wondering why I'm not responding on their mobile phone calls or something..._

* * *

"So, Blythe got ill? She's almost never ill!" Youngmee said.

"Should we go to her house or something, spend time with her?" Jasper asked.

"Nah, I don't think she'll like that. She's not responding to anything and I think she turned her phone off. We better not bug her and just let her get her rest," Sue said.

The three friends concluded that was the best thing to do for the moment.

There was one thing thought that Sue found strange. _Why is Jasper looking at me like that? _She thought. _It's not like him._

* * *

Time went by slowly in the Largest Ever Pet shop. With nothing to do, and be confined to a space where she could barely turn herself around, Blythe slowly began to lose her sanity.

"Okay! What if I stay a cat my whole life? Can I then run around for a while? Please?" she shouted out. "Come on!" she angrily said. "I don't know how much more you want from me!"

"The new cat is loco!" Blythe heard a Chihuahua say. "Who is she talking to?"

Blythe decided to shut her mouth for the moment. But it began getting unbearable inhere.

_What time is it? _She looked at the clock. _15:47? I just wasted an eternity in this misery and only seventeen minutes passed? Come on! _

She sighed. _How long until my friends will bust me out from here?_

"Watch out!" she heard the ferret say. "The two abominations are here!"

Blythe stood up and tried to look at what caused the disturbance. What the 'two abominations' were of course was clear as glass; the Biskit twins. They were standing at the doorway with Fisher Biskit –their father – for some reason.

"Now, girls," Fisher Biskit said, "you two need to learn on how to deal with animals. If you cannot understand the most basic things about the place you're in charge of, you will have failed already!"

"Yeah, like, whatever, dad," Britany said. "Why are we even here?"

"Yeah, because, like," Whitany said, "I don't understand the job of anyone who works for us and we seem to be doing okay, so why should we be learning all of this?"

She then proceeded to chat to someone on her mobile phone. Blythe grinned at seeing these two silly girls being total dumb nuts again, especially right in front of their father.

"Oh, girls…" he facepalmed as he said those words. "How am I going to teach you to get your earnings through a long and honest hard days' work?"

"What does that even mean?"

Fisher Biskit noticed there was a person – probably a customer, Blythe reckoned - to take a look at the pets, so he decided to pass judgment on his daughters later. "Just brush them already!"

Blythe heard yelps in fear – and perhaps also pain, she wasn't sure if it was true – of pets being brushed by the Biskit Twins. The latter, of course, were barely able to do their job. This was mostly caused by their own stupidity.

After a few minutes the Biskit Twins left the room out of boredom – Blythe was relieved that she didn't fell victim to their… methods.

_O boy, hopefully their dad won't send them back to finish the job…_

"Well, doctor, we've got two new pets that need the routine treatment. They're in cages 3B and 8E. Do you require my help?" Fisher Biskit asked.

_Wait… doctor?!_

"No, I'll be fine. I will just analyze and chip them," the vet said.

Normally going to a doctor wasn't a big issue for Blythe, but now she was frightened to death by the appearance of the vet. And it seemed like she was the first one to bear its treatment.

"Now, come here little one…" he mumbled under his breath. He opened Blythe's cage and pulled her out of it.

Blythe protested but knew resistance was futile, even though she tried to use her nails to keep from being taken out of the cage. Before she knew it, she was on a table and being examined.

"And now open your mouth… that's a good girl…" the vet said as he pried open Blythe's mouth. She recognized this vet – it was the same one who did the regular checkups on the pets from Littlest Pet Shop. He was a very pleasant man, but at this point in time didn't Blythe want to be in close proximity to him.

"Now those are some fine teeth… healthy fur… good outlook…" he put down his tools as he was done examining. "You're the picture of health. You're making my life easy. I'm sure you will get adopted in no-time!"

Blythe figured that her healthy human lifestyle was being reflected on her cat body. She wasn't sure though. And despite the fact that a human was talking to an animal like that – w_ell, a human that cannot understand pets – _Blythe found his voice very soothing. It was like he was trying to comfort her the whole time in order to get the process done smoothly. _That's probably his intent._ Suddenly, she was grabbed in her neck and felt something painful near her ear.

"Calm down, it will be over soon… and that's it! Done!" the vet said. "The chip is in! Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Her eyes went big. _The what is in what?! _Blythe thought, panicking. She almost want to scratch it out, but knew that they would then put a cone on her or something, and even if she did get it out, they would just put it back in, so she decided to wait for that until she turned human again.

_Can I even turn back into a human with that thing in the back of my ear?!_

"So… that's that, then," the vet said. "For now I'm doing with you."

He picked Blythe up from the table and put her back into her cage, and did the lock back on. "Next week I need to take you to my place to get you 'helped'. I'm sure you can handle it."

_Wait, what does he mean by 'helped'? Does he mean…_

And then the realization kicked in.

"Noo! Noo! Noo! Not that! Please!" Blythe begged. She shivered, cried and backed down into the corner of her cage all at the same time. At this point she heard how the pet from cage 8E being taken care of by the vet, but she couldn't care less about that pet.

"Please!" she yelled. "What did I do to deserve this?"

She turned around, her face to the back of the cage. She started lying down on her belly with her new tail around her forelegs. She wanted to pull that tail out. It was alien to her. But she knew she couldn't. Blythe began crying and sobbing for more than half an hour in a row, and there was no one in there to comfort her. She just wanted this nightmare to end, to get back to her friends and family and spend time with her pets in the Littlest Pet Shop.

She then looked at the clock. She noticed the vet was gone by now.

_16:35_. She then saw that the vet was already gone. _That vet really had done it quickly. He's more efficient than I thought. _

She heard in the background how Fisher Biskit was helping out a customer. From the voices she could recognize it was a teenager he was talking to, though through the plastic door she couldn't quite hear who it was.

"So, young man, what is it that you exactly need?" Fisher Biskit asked the customer.

"I'm here to buy a cat and some accessories," the guy said.

"Well, I am sure I can help you out with that!"

That voice made Blythe perk her ears up. _I know that voice! _She turned around to see if it really was the person she thought it was.

Her cat ears did not betray her – that guy see saw was certainly the person she thought it was.

It was Josh.

_What is he doing here?_


	8. Being Sold

Blythe was quite surprised seeing Josh here. _Why would he want a pet? _Those words made her realize something. _Wait a second… is he looking for a cat?_

She realized that this was her best way out – better than going with some people she has never known her whole life to a location that might be anywhere, even outside Downtown City. She knew Josh, where he lived, and how to get to the Littlest Pet Shop from there. She felt a little guilty for using him and his money to get out, but the situation kind of forced her to do so.

_It would be strange for them to let me go, though… _she thought. _I'm barely in here. How long, about an hour or four? Is that even legal, to sell a pet that quickly? Was taking me off the street even legal in the first place?_

Blythe didn't know, and at the moment she didn't care. Josh was her way out of here. It just had to be.

"How many cats do you have?" Josh asked to Fisher Biskit.

"Three at the moment," Biskit responded. "All of them female. Two of them are one year old, the other we don't know. I guess she is about two years old."

"And what kind of race are they?"

"The first one – Angelina she's called – is a Persian. The second, Fluffy, is a British short hair. And the third one I just mentioned is one whose race we haven't figured out yet. I've never seen a cat with brown fur like this. We also don't have a name yet."

Blythe knew he was talking about her. It was strange being talked about like this.

"Can I see them, please?"

"Of course," Fisher Biskit pointed at the cages. "This way."

Fisher Biskit led Josh towards the cages where the pets are held. "All three cats are already chipped. The third one still needs vaccines though, and of course needs to be 'helped'. That is why she is currently the cheapest."

Josh nodded. "I see." He stepped forward and took a look at one of the cages. Which one of the other two cats it was Blythe had no idea.

"Well…" Josh said, "I'm not looking for a Persian. I'm looking for a more 'plain' cat, if you know what I mean."

Fisher Biskit nodded, and showed Josh Blythe's cage. "Then I guess you're looking for this one over here."

Josh came forward and took a good look at Blythe. Blythe knew he wouldn't recognize her, but acted like she was curious in Josh to get him to like her. She knew that she would need to get his attention. He went with a finger through the hole in the cage. Blythe then pressed her nose against it, her whiskers touching it. "Please adopt me," she said, which came out as soft yelps.

Josh turned to Fisher Biskit. "This one, please."

Blythe saw how Biskit picked up a basket, then opened up Blythe's cage and pulled her into it. She allowed him to do so and decided not to scratch him, even though deep down she actually wanted to.

"You were also looking for accessories, am I correct?" Fisher Biskit asked Josh.

Josh nodded. "Yes. Uh… a collar, an eating tray, a couple of small toys and a litter box."

"I think that can be arranged."

Blythe peered through the small fence at the front of her basket and looked at how Fisher Biskit was helping Josh out with what he needed. She was picked up every now and again, and then again put down.

Then there was this weird machine, just like the other many weird things that were around the Largest Ever Pet Shop.

"This is our collar generator," Fisher Biskit explained to Josh. "This machine makes any type of collar you want, and creates a penny with it, too. You just have to insert the name and address down below, and the machine will do the rest!"

Josh leaned forward onto the machine and inserted his address. "221st Poet Street…. Downtown City…"

He hesitated for a moment before he inserted the name.

"Have you made a decision regarding the name?" Fisher Biskit asked, politely.

Josh nodded. "Dina. I'm calling her Dina."

_Dina, _Blythe thought. _Di-na._

Getting a new name was a weird experience. Still, she was actually kind of glad she didn't get a name like 'Fluffy' or 'Killer' or 'Queen Mary' or something. In fact, she actually kind of liked the name.

But a name didn't matter. She just needed a few hours to find a way to get outside, then perform one of those 'solutions'.

_Time to jump off a building I guess._

Blythe felt how her basket was picked up again, then put on the counter. She then heard the voice of Fisher Biskit again. "For the time being I recommend keeping her inside. If she's not accustomed to your place she might run off scared and not find her way back."

_What the what?!_

"How long do you recommend?" Josh asked Fisher Biskit.

"Two days, three days I reckon. After that, she should be okay." Fisher Biskit responded.

"Alright. That sounds very logical."

"LOGICAL?!" Blythe exclaimed. Of course this word came out as a soft yelp.

"Hm. It doesn't seem like Dina over here agrees," Fisher Biskit said. The two laughed a bit.

Blythe was done shaking. She just had to get out of there! She then ticked a bit on the basket with her paw, trying to see how she could push it open.

"Well, isn't she very excited," Fisher Biskit said. That's a lively one!"

"I guess so."

Josh Sharp bought some cat food as well at the end of the store, and then finished his payment. He picked up his belongings and walked out of the store, one hand with a shopping bag full of accessories and the other with Blythe's basket. Blythe thought he came here on his motorcycle or just on a bicycle, but it turned out his parents had parked their car on the parking lot.

"Well Dina," he said to Blythe, "I guess I'll be taking you to your new home."

Blythe meowed softly.

"Oh, don't worry, you'll like it!"

This was actually one of the reasons why Blythe had a crush on Josh. He was soft-spoken and knew how to deal properly with different kinds of people – and pets at that.

_Well, crush-time is over I guess. Boys don't get a crush on their pets._

Blythe knew she had to face it – she was now the pet of the boy that was her crush.

Josh walked over to the car of his parents on the parking lot. "Hey, ma. I made it."

"Well done, darling," Blythe heard a woman say. She figured this had to be Josh's mother. Blythe heard footsteps nearing her basket and before she knew it, the lady was peeking into her basket. "Well then, isn't he adorable?"

"It's a she, mom. I've named her Dina."

"Oh… yes I see her collar. Well, isn't that a pretty name?"

_Please tell me I haven't been behaving like that in front of the pets._

"Alright, son, put the cat in the back." Blythe heard a man say. _Josh's father, huh?_

Josh put the bag with cat accessories in the back of the car, and then gently put Blythe beside it. "Easy, Dina. We're home before you know it."

_Home._

Blythe head how the family sat down and buckled up their seatbelts. Then they drove off. Blythe tried to figure out what they were talking about, but it was hard to guess due to the noise of the car. When they came to a halt in front of a traffic light, however, she was able to make out what they were saying.

"…you were quite early. I thought we were going to buy a pet in a few weeks!" Blythe heard Josh's father say.

"And a cat at that! I thought you wanted a hamster or something," Josh's mother said.

"Well, I had the idea for a cat. It seemed like the most logical idea," Josh replied.

_How is this possible? _Blythe thought. _A hamster, okay… but a cat is one really big step forward. How did his parents just agree to this? Just, because?_

Blythe's head was full of questions, and she didn't know any of the answers.

It didn't take long before they reached 221st Poet Street. There, they stepped out and unloaded the car. Blythe was the first one to be unloaded. She just stayed put and waited to be released, although the family Sharp seemed more inclined to unload the car first. Turned out they had a lot more shopping done today than 'just' buying a cat.

After a few minutes Josh walked over to Blythe's basket.

"So… time to get you out," Josh mumbled. He opened Blythe's basket and waited for her to come out of it. Blythe didn't take long to get out. She was still intimidated by how large everything had become for her – humans and their homes. Actually, it was her that had gotten smaller. Blythe decided to walk around for a bit, explore her surroundings. She was in the hall. There was a staircase leading upstairs. She figured there is where his bedroom should be. There was also a door leading to a living room. It was opened, but she had to place her paw behind the door to open it far enough to let herself through. She did do so, and looked around the living room. She saw that the kitchen was directly connected to the living room, and behind that was the back yard.

"Alright, Dina, you can take a moment to get all settled in, alright? Well, let me know if you need anything," Josh said. He then stroked Blythe over her head. Then he stood up and left the living room. Blythe stayed behind, although his parents were still in the room. The father was reading the newspaper and the mother was working on something, though she couldn't figure out what it was.

Blythe jumped onto the chair, turned around for a bit and then sat down on a cozy spot. She needed a moment to take in everything that had happened. Luckily though for Blythe she saw that Josh's parents allowed her to do this. Most pets weren't allowed to sit on soft couches or chairs.

She took a look at the clock in the living room. It was 17:30.

It was only something like 24 hours ago that she was just Blythe Baxter. A girl who loved fashion, worked in a pet store/pet day care and went to school. She was also the girl who had the amazing talent to talk to animals. Then she grew ears and whiskers and turned into a cat, got into the Largest Ever Pet shop, was chipped, got a new name and was sold to the boy she had a crush on for the past few years. If one would look at her now, there was nothing that would make that person think that she wasn't an ordinary cat.

And for the next three days she would be locked up, and thus she couldn't become human again.

_There is no Blythe Baxter anymore. There is only Dina the cat._


	9. Josh

After half an hour, Blythe decided to jump of the chair she was sitting on and start to explore the house. It was her new home after all for the next few days – or, that was what she hoped for – and thus it seemed like a good idea to get to know the place.

The house itself wasn't anything really special. It had the typical basic layout almost any house has, having a living room, kitchen and a toilet. Upstairs there were bedrooms, a study, a bathroom and of course Josh's own room. Blythe had already grown accustomed to the fact that everything seemed a lot bigger, but still had to tell herself that Josh's house wasn't that big at all in reality. The hallways weren't too wide and the ceilings didn't come higher than 7 foot.

When Blythe discovered Josh's room, she waited for a short while near the entrance while examining the door. _Should I go in there and 'discover' his room?_

She knew she had to do so eventually, so she decided to go with it. She pushed a bit against the door, but when that didn't give way she decided to meow a bit to get his attention. She didn't want to do it too loud, because that would perhaps get the attention of the rest of the household. When Josh didn't react, she decided to softly scratch the door a bit and meow again.

That got Josh's attention. He opened the door and let her in.

"Hey Dina," he said. "You've come to take a look at my room?"

Blythe felt the butterflies in her stomach again when he spoke. It was clear she had still a crush on him, even though there was no way for her now to start dating him, even though she was standing in his bedroom.

"I do!" Blythe said. It of course came out as a yelp. She then started to examine his room. He had a desk, a bed, a bookcase and a closet for his clothes. It was quite similar as her own room, except for the fact that he had guitar posters on the walls and that the furniture had different colors. She saw a beanbag in the corner of the room and a comfortable chair in the room as well. Then she noticed that he had placed a basket in the corner of the room. It was clear that it was intended for her to sleep on. She walked forward and started to sniff it. It took a few seconds for her to realize what she was doing and stopped it.

"My parents don't want you to sleep in the kitchen or anywhere downstairs," he said. "So I think you'll need to stay here."

_Wait, what did he say? _Blythe thought. She had missed the point he made about the basket. _Well, it's clear I need to sleep here for the moment. I don't want to take chances by sleeping on the furniture and getting hair everywhere. Maybe his parents would even throw me out._

_Not that I have anything against that, but throwing out of course doesn't mean going back to Largest Ever Pet Shop._

She felt how she was back scratched by Josh. She didn't even know he was coming. She slowly started to purr again by feeling his hand going over her back.

"See?" Josh said. "Nothing to worry about. You're already purring – you'll fit right in here! Ha, that mom and dad thought you were going to be a big trouble and have problems settling in… you won't, won't you?"

Blythe walked a bit around, feeling Josh's hand going over her head and back. She then decided to go to her own basket and decided to go look for a comfortable spot. She saw how Josh went to a corner and picked up his guitar.

"I need to practice a bit for the next show," Josh said. "Mom and dad don't mind me practicing; you won't as well, right?"

Blythe didn't react and started to listen to the music that Josh played. She liked it, no, she loved it. _I should design clothes for him to wear on stage. Perhaps ones for myself as well, if I could accompany him._

_I think I'm going to like it here._

Blythe quickly got that thought out of her head.

_No! I need to throw myself off a building! I can't stop now! I can't throw away everything that I have!_

Blythe repositioned herself on her basket and started wondering how long it would take before she was a real cat, one that just lived as a pet with a small hobby and an owner. _Will I forget Blythe ever existed?_

The owners of the pets came to pick them up at the normal time of the day. Mrs. Twombly was a bit scared that the owners of the cat would come and give her a mouthful for losing it, but to her surprise nobody showed up.

_Huh. I've probably taken care of a stray or something. _ She giggled as she thought that. _Oh, Anna, you really need to stop taking care of strays…_

Elsewhere in the shop were Russell and Minka still waiting to be picked up by their owners.

"Russell, can't that wait until tomorrow?" Minka said. Russell was still busy on his drawing board to create a plan to free Blythe from the Largest Ever Pet Shop.

"No, Minka, this is a plan that is so precise I need to work this out properly." He sighed. "I need to take care of other ideas as well. I guess I'll take this work home tonight and present this tomorrow morning here in the office."

"Uh… Russell?" Minka said. "We're not office workers, we're pets."

"O, yeah, right."

"And I don't think your owners will like it if you take that home with you."

"Probably not," Russell said. He put down his pencil, jumped off his chair and then looked at Minka. "Listen, we still have three days to make Blythe a human again. I'm sure we can break her out. I still need to work on the edges, but the plan is sound!"

"And what kind of plan is that?" Minka asked.

"We'll create a lot of smoke while we're in the Largest Ever Pet Shop! Then, the fire alarms go off and we can go get her!"

"Wait, we're setting it on fire?"

"No, Minka, just a smoke bomb! And then, amidst the chaos, comes I, Russell, saving our damsel in distress…"

"And the other pets?"

Russell sighed. "…yes, and the other pets help to of course."

"Ohhh and how are we going to stop the bad robot?!" Minka asked, excitedly.

"Robot?" Russell asked. He then realized what she was talking about. "No! I didn't even think about that guy!" he facepalmed as he said it.

Russell, panicking, ran back to his drawing board and looked over his notes. "No! No! No! I had forgotten that they had a robot there! He will put out the smoke bomb as soon as he finds it!"

"So… no smoke bomb?"

Russell sighed. "No, Minka. No smoke bomb. And no plan. I'll have to start ov-"

"Sweeties!" Mrs. Twombly said. "Your owners are here!"

"Tomorrow I'll make a new plan," Russell said. "You'll see."

Russell and Minka walked to Mrs. Twombly and hopped in the travel cages she had put down for them.

Josh put his guitar down. "So, Dina, did you like it?" Josh asked Blythe. Blythe softly meowed. "Well, you're not complaining. That's something I guess."

Blythe slowly got used to the idea that Josh talked to her like she was his cat – well, she was his cat, but being on the receiving end was still a tad weird. That and the fact that her name was now Dina.

She stood up and walked around his legs, purring. She immediately caught herself doing that. _No, Blythe! Don't do that! _She thought as she shook her head.

"It's almost dinner time," Josh said. "But I guess I will have to introduce you to the litter box first."

_The… what?_

Blythe realized she should have seen this coming – for them, she was just an ordinary cat. One that would eat cat food while everyone else was eating a hot dinner and that would dump her garbage in a litter box instead of a toilet.

She shivered a bit at the thought, but knew she had to face it.

"Weird, I don't recall anyone at the store saying if you were trained or not…" Josh said to Blythe. "You are, I hope?"

Blythe didn't say anything but just looked at him. Josh then opened the door, took a step back and picked Blythe up. Blythe allowed this, since Josh needed to show her the litter box.

Josh, with Blythe curled up in his arms, walked downstairs and showed the storage room behind the kitchen. Blythe had not noticed that room until now. "Here it is," Josh said. He then put Blythe down.

"Here, Dina. Here is your litter box," he said while pointing at it. He then turned forward and went with his finger through the clean litter, to make sure Blythe got it. Blythe looked at it for a second.

Josh then turned around. "And before I forget…" he gave Blythe a polite small push to show her something else.

"…here is the place you can eat."

Blythe saw how there were 2 bowls on the ground. One had water in it, the other was completely empty. Well, not until Josh would put kibble in there, or some other type of cat food. Josh waited for a while to make sure Blythe would have 'investigated' the place, but Blythe didn't do anything except just standing there.

"Josh!" Blythe heard someone shout from the kitchen. She figured it had to be Josh's mother. Blythe had not really seen her until now, except when she saw her for the first time when they arrived at the house.

"Dinner!"

"I'm coming, ma!" Josh shouted back. He then turned to Blythe. "I'm sure you can handle it, Dina." He petted her on the head and then took off.

Blythe slowly raised her paw but decided not to follow him. It would be too awkward to be seeing them eat while not getting any of it. Besides, she didn't want to go begging from scraps from the table.

_Would I eventually be going to do that? _Blythe wondered. She realized that, if all things went wrong, she would be a cat forever. And then she would never eat 'human' food again. Would she go begging for small scraps to at least taste a little bit of it? Or even eat from the trash bin and search through their leftovers?

_I still have four days… no, wait, three days and this evening._

Blythe knew she had to leave the house to make herself human again. Only there she could find a high building to jump from. Or perform those other solutions, whatever they were.

_They're distracted, _she realized. _Now's my chance. _

Blythe looked around for a door to the backyard, or at least a window that was open. When she looked around, she noticed that the door behind her led to the outside world. She walked towards it, climbed upon a small table next to it and tried getting on the door handle.

_It's locked._

There was no key in sight. It had to be in one of the jacket pockets, or someplace else. But she had no way to know how to do this quietly so no one would notice her actions.

Blythe, once again temporarily defeated, stood on the doormat. She had to find another way out.

_I'm thirsty._

Escaping could wait for a moment. She walked over to the bowl with water and instinctively started to drink. She used her tongue properly to make the quick movements a cat would need to shoot the water inside her mouth. It didn't take long before she was content and had been drinking enough.

She then noticed the litter box. The last time she had a toilet break was yesterday. _That long already? _Blythe thought. She felt that she needed to pee. She walked toward it and softly scratched the front of the litter box.

Dina instinctively knew how to use it, and went inside.


	10. Being Josh's Cat

For the rest of the evening Dina had tried to find ways to get out of the house. The problem was that Josh had paid attention to what Fisher Biskit had said, and thus all the windows were locked and doors that led to places where Dina was not supposed to be were closed. At one she even tried bashing the door to the yard open, but as being a small cat this didn't amount to anything except for making some noise. Josh's mother didn't think anything of it and just called her a silly cat, after which she had gently petted Dina on the head.

Dina didn't know what to do anymore and decided to go sleep for the night. She would have three more days anyway. Tomorrow they would be at work or school, and thus she would have enough time to figure out an escape plan. Maybe they would even have left open a window or door if she was lucky enough, or have left a key to one of the doors lying around somewhere.

She figured it would have to do. For now the only thing she could do was sleep for a bit. It would be a long day ahead of her tomorrow, so she would need the rest. Dina made her way back up to Josh's bedroom and, when there and then allowed herself to get a comfortable spot on the basket they bought for her. For a while she stared into nothingness, thinking about nothing in particular, even though she had plenty to think about. It didn't take long before she was vast asleep.

She was barely woken up one time later on in the evening when Josh scratched her behind her ears, but she was back asleep within seconds.

_Three days to go._

During the early morning everyone was having their own breakfast and packing up for work or school. Normally Dina would do this as well, were it not for the fact that she has been turned into a cat now. Instead, she took some of the kibble that Josh had put into a bowl for her and drank a small bit of water. Then, she went to Josh's room to sit on her basket. She had to wait before they left before she could do another escape attempt.

Too bad for her though, namely because Josh's mother decided to stay longer in the house than Dina had hoped.

_Why aren't you leaving yet?_

Dina figured the mother had to be having an evening job or something of that nature.

Because a breakout attempt at this time was impossible, Dina had to do something else in the meantime. She saw how there were a couple of colored crayons on Josh's desk and also some white sheets, and decided to go along with that.

After all, she had to design some fashion for him to go on stage. For her as well, if she was to accompany him.

She took a crayon and put it in her paw. In hindsight that went easier than she actually should be doing considering the condition of her… hands.

_If Vinnie can use a TV remote, Sunil a wand, Pepper all those gadgets of her and Penny Ling all those ribbons, then I'm surely able to use a crayon, _Dina reasoned.

Drawing wasn't really that hard despite her changes in anatomy. Dina quickly found herself able to draw a nice outfit for Josh. His measurements he took from the clothes in his closet, so that made that job fairly simple.

The outfit was practical and, so she hoped, matched up with his personal style. For herself she made a small cat outfit that was very close to what she had designed for Josh.

Drawing all this took a while, but she had fun doing so. After a long while she realized she was done drawing.

_Now only to find a way to turn these designs into actual outfits._

_Somehow. _

Dina sat on the floor of Josh's room. She noticed she could easily tell his scent from here, even though he had not been in his room for several hours.

_What time is it? _She looked at the clock.

_2 p.m._

Dina found it remarkable that she spend more than 4 hours on a small couple of drawings without realizing it. Of course she couldn't keep the drawings so she hid them away under Josh's bookcase. There she could keep her drawings.

Until someone of course decided to clean that place out.

It would still be at least two hours before Josh would come back – if he went straight home after school. Dina figured though that he would go hang out with friends first. If it was the latter, then it would take him another hour or two before he would come back for dinner.

Dina sighed and looked down. She then noticed that her fur was a bit dirty on some places. She would have to take a shower, or –

_Wait, what am I doing?_

Dina noticed that her paw was raised and that she was licking it.

_Am I now washing myself?_

She put her paw down and started to take into account what just happened.

Instead of telling herself things on how she should not completely become a cat, she simply started to walk away. The only thing she could do was looking for a way out, an empty window or a door.

_Maybe I should start breaking a window._

This involved risk; getting hurt from shattered glass wasn't really on her agenda. Then again, becoming a cat forever wasn't either. She just had to try it.

She went to a small window; there was one at the front door. This one she could break, get through easily and then have no problems going anywhere she wanted.

Dina touched the outer edges of the glass and pushed it. She soon realized that this piece of glass, no matter how looking dirty, was still well in its frame and had no intention of getting out.

Dina then tried using her hind paws to smash it out, but that didn't succeed. Neither did using several objects she found in the hallway to help her with it.

It wasn't that the glass was too thick or too small for her – she simply was too weak to do any damage to it, even when she used her claws against it. When she tried it on another window, a larger one, the result was the same. She wasn't even making a dent in it.

She simply had to wait until someone opened a door for her to bust through. That could take a while.

Instead of simply waiting at the front door she decided to have a nap first. She went up to Josh's room and crashed into her own basket.

It didn't take long before she was asleep.

It was hours before Dina woke up again. She stretched her front paws, yawned, and then decided to get out of her basket and into daily life again.

_How long was I asleep? _She wondered. _Even better, why did I go to sleep? It's the middle of the day?_

She shivered as she thought about it. _Am I really becoming a cat?_

Dina didn't want to think too much of it, and instead decided to go downstairs. Josh hadn't arrived yet, but she sensed that his parents had.

Downstairs she went into the living room and saw that the TV was turned on. It was 5 o'clock, so she figured that the news would be on. Afterwards, as usual, there would be a small report for missing people.

_Would I be on it?_

Sooner or later, she would be on it – after school would realize that the girl is sick for quite some time and after her father wouldn't find her. But that could still be a while.

"Hey Dina," she heard Josh's father say. "Did you come to take a look?"

Dina softly meowed.

She knew he wouldn't allow her to sit on the furniture, so she had to sit down on the carpet. She took a comfortable spot which took her a couple of seconds to do so.

A few moments later the news turned on.

First there were some news reports about some war happening far away, and how the UN is concerned about it.

Then there was some politician saying stuff to try to take another politician down.

Then there was some hospital that had a new treatment to a disease

And finally the weather.

And then it came – the missing people report.

There was some guy who had money issues, a lady and a young boy. But not her. _They still don't realize I'm gone yet._

It gave her some satisfaction, though. She still could become human again and then get home without anyone realizing she had gone missing. But she knew she had to do it quick.

Dina heard how someone opened the front door.

"Hey mom, hey dad, I'm home!"

He closed it as soon as he opened it, so that Dina couldn't escape from this house. The distance she had to cover was far too great though for any escape attempt and Dina knew that.

Josh hurried up the stairs.

"Sounds like he is going to listen to that weird radio broadcast on his computer again…" Josh's father mumbled.

_Radio broadcast?_

Dina had no idea what the man was talking about, so she decided to go to Josh's room to investigate this. Besides, as being his cat she had to greet him properly as he returned home.

Dina walked out of the living room and up the stairs. Through her cat ears she could already hear a bit about the broadcast but couldn't comprehend it. When she came into his room though she could finally understand it.

_"__Well, that's it, then! This is junkyard Downtown City! Can't you hear this crap, man? I mean, I'M SHOOTING PEARLS HERE! I'M SHOOTING PEARLS! That's it! Gimme the mike -"_ directly after that, the entire rampage ensued again.

_Is that guy breaking down his entire studio? _Dina thought. _Josh sure listens to weird radio programs…_

_"__I mean, look at this!" _the radio voice on Josh's PC continued. _"The freaking microphone's going off, ooh…. Ooh…, well, one more and that's it! Radio code 431, radio Graffiti!" _

Dina heard how 431 then started playing a clip from a TV-show.

_"__My Small Squirrel… The very smallest that squirrels can be… My Small Squirrel… their happy is -"_

_"__Get him off, gethimoff! You idiots! I've told you time and time again you dumb 'Brorrels'! That show is for eight year old girls! You're all over feminized fruit bowls and this is -"_

Once again the guy on the radio was demolishing everything. _That guy has issues, _Dina realized_. And Josh finds that funny? Why?_

_"__I'M A COMMUNIST! AARGHH! And I deserve the respect, according that title!"_

Dina smirked. _Yeah, there is definitely something wrong with that guy._

Dina had heard enough, and just let Josh listen to this weird radio show if he wanted to. It was a bit too weird for her tastes.

She lay down on the floor, curled up, and started to watch Josh sit behind his computer listening to that broadcast. The rage from the weird went on for more than half an hour.

_"__That's it! I'm done! I'm not giving these people the pleasure of listening to my broadcast! Get me out of here!"_

A weird mumbling voice could be heard in the background.

_"__I don't care! Get me out of here!"_

An announcer then took over. _"You've been listening to Very Communist Radio. The thoughts, views, ideals and comments of the host of the show are – absolutely his. Catch more live episodes Monday through Friday from our live broadcast in Downtown City during the early mornings, or check out archive shows at CommieRadio dot com."_

And with that, the show ended.

_I still have no clue what that was about. Josh sure listens to weird broadcasts._

Dina decided to not to think too bad of Josh after what just happened and instead jump on his desk to see what he was doing right now.

"Hey Dina," he said. "Well, this one sounds like it was amazing! Too bad I could only hear the end of it though. I think I need to look this one up later in the archive."

Dina didn't react to what he said.

"Well Dina, now it is time to go on Skype and talk to friends. Ha, maybe she has even added me," Josh said. He went through his Skype, but suddenly turned his head and sighed in disappointment "It seems like she won't be online on Skype for a while, Dina. That or she's ignoring me."

Dina had no idea what Josh was talking about or who he was talking about, so she walked towards him to see what it was on his computer screen that he was talking about. Josh gently scratched her behind her ears, and then showed someone's account on Skype.

Dina knew that photograph on the account on screen.

_Wait… isn't that my account?_

Dina – well, Blythe Baxter - had not added Josh to her contacts. She was too shy and was afraid she would make embarrassing mistakes again, so she ignored him.

"I've been having a crush on this girl for a while now, but…" Josh sighed. "It seems like she doesn't like me."

_What?!_

"Whenever she sees me, she puts on a goofy laugh and then runs away like crazy. It's like she's scared of me. And then she doesn't add me on Skype and ignores me on Facebook, so…" he sighed again. "Perhaps I should let it go."

_What?!_

Dina hopped off from Josh's desk, walked to the other side of the room and jumped onto a chair. She put her tail behind her forelegs and stared forward.

_What have I done?_

It was clear that Josh had a crush on Blythe as well, and that she had squandered it.

_With my stupid laughs and dumb acts and not being kind and honest with him I…_

_I…_

Dina knew it was too late for her now to do anything about it. The fact that she didn't become Josh's girlfriend was her own doing, and she now fully realized it. And now it was too late. Now she was Josh's cat, and probably would be for the rest of her life if she wouldn't jump off a building in the next two days.

_Two days. One night, then a full day, then another night, then another day. And then I will be a cat forever. _Dina kept pondering her thoughts. _Is this how it should be? Me, being Josh's cat? His family accepts me, he is so kind and accepts me and gives me everything I need, and he gives good back scratches and…_

Dina then realized that there was a girl named Blythe, who worked in a pet store, who had a loving father and friends, loved fashion and could talk to animals.

_No, _Dina thought. _I can't let myself go. I need to come back._

Dina didn't know what the future would hold, but she knew that if she wouldn't turn back into a girl, her friends would miss her a lot and her father… she didn't want to think about what would happen to her father. _ No, _Dina thought. _I can't let go. I have too much to go back to._

_And I don't want to forget them._

She sighed, and then slowly looked around her. It would take a while before the next day would start and she could attempt another breakout attempt. But she noticed that her fur was a bit dirty. Dina slowly started to lick her right front paw to start washing herself.


	11. The Rescue Plan

_Two days._

Dina knew she was slowly but surely running out of time, but she had no way of escaping Josh's home. Josh wanted to make sure she would get accustomed first to their home and not decide to panic, run away only to never be found again.

To go and check the windows and doors again was a completely futile effort – they were too study and all locked. Dina was trapped, that much she knew.

Still, there were other ways of getting out. Maybe if somebody would HELP her out from the outside, then –

_Hey! Idea!_

Dina figured that if she couldn't get out herself, then notifying someone on the outside could help. A small bird or something. And if that bird was kind enough to tell her friends at the Littlest Pet Shop, then maybe the cavalry could come in to save her.

At this point it was her best plan, so she could go along with it. In both the kitchen and the bathroom there were small windows open near the ceiling that Dina could not get through, but she could get sound out of them all the same.

She began standing near the one from the kitchen, inhaled deep and then started meowing loudly, trying to get someone's attention.

Dina felt how her whiskers began standing forward as she started meowing, her head pointed at the window.

"Hey, cat, what's up? Can't get out?" a bird said. The bird of course was happy to see a cat being trapped indoors. "So, how does that feel, huh?"

"Uh… Mr. Bird?" Dina asked. "Can I ask you a favor?"

"A favor?" the bird asked. "Well, if it's a favor I need to get something in return at one point. What is it that you could offer me?"

"Well…" Dina thought. She knew that, if everything was resolved, she could give him seeds. She had to bet on that.

"I can give you seeds afterwards if you'd like."

"Huh? And how are you going to do that? Are you going to get it out of your bowl?" the bird sarcastically said.

"I'm not a cat!" Dina shouted. "I'm a human girl!"

"And I'm not a bird! I'm a gigantic robot from outer space that can pretend to be a normal car and I am here to kill all humans! As soon as I find a way to get my life force into my own body again, I shall thrive once more!"

"Shut up!" Dina sneered. "This is no time for stupid jokes! My name is Blythe Baxter, and I need my friends from the -"

"Blythe Baxter?" the bird said. He was getting off his sarcastic tone and was now serious. "That girl that can talk to animals that I have been standing in a row for 5 hours for before I was send back home?"

Dina nodded. "Yes. That Blythe Baxter. I have been turned into a cat, and I need my friends to get me out of here! Do you know the way to the Littlest Pet Shop?"

"Of course I do! I know Downtown City like it is my back pocket!"

"…you don't have any back pockets," Dina remarked.

"…yeah, that my point," the bird said. "But hey, if I get bird seed for it, count me in for this adventure! I'll find your friends in no-time!"

The bird then flew off.

_If that bird is my best hope, then I will be a cat forever._

"I'm telling you guys, my psychic abilities say that Blythe has left the Largest Ever Pet Shop!" Sunil said. "I have the idea that she is somewhere else in Downtown City!"

"If she is in Downtown City, then why isn't she trying to get here, then?" Zoe argued. "It's been two days!"

"She is staying at the same place, then?" Russell remarked, "Like that she is somewhere locked up inside?"

"That could be right," Sunil said. "She seems to be staying at one spot."

"Is she kidnapped than?!" Minka asked. "Or, cat-napped? Do we to go safe here? Eek!"

"Oh, I hope she is alright, and that there is no scary captor," Penny Ling said. "I'm so worried about her!"

"We all are, Penny Ling," Zoe said. She then turned to Russell. "We can't just stay here! She has two days before she becomes a cat forever!"

Russell nodded. "We need to find a way to pinpoint her location and extract her." He pulled out a map of Downtown City and placed it on the floor. "We first have to determine if she's still at the Largest Ever Pet Shop through a sleeper agent. If not, we can use agents throughout the entire city to locate her. Now, if we -"

"Uh…. What's a sleeper agent? I don't know, but I don't think sleeping pets can do something…" Vinnie asked.

"It means we're asking small pets to sneak in and find her."

"And how are we going to do that?" Zoe asked. "That large robot surely will catch us! …if Mrs. Twombly even lets us go!"

"Well, Blythe still owns a lot of favors to the animals of downtown city. Birds and squirrels can easily sneak in and find her," Russell explained. "Now, only if I -"

"Heeyyy guys!"

The pets turn around to see that it was Buttercream Sundae.

"Oh, hey Buttercream," Russell said. "I'm sorry, but we're having an important mission going here. We can't play right now."

"But I'm not here for that, silly! I'm here because what a little birdie whispered me!"

"What?" Russell asked.

"What?"

Buttercream's ears went straight and her eyes went small, and then she exhaled as she became calm again.

"Anywho… there is a birdie here who wants to talk to you guys about Blythe! The guy went to the sweet shop instead of the Littlest Pet Shop so I guided him here!"

"Really?" the pets said in unison.

"Let him in, then!" Penny Ling said.

The bird, who was standing on the door that led into the shop came down from it and landed near the pets.

"I know where Blythe is, yes," he said. "And for some reason she's a cat. I thought she was that talking human."

"That's got to be her!" Pepper said to no one in particular. She then turned to the bird. "You know where she is, right? Do you have her address?"

"She's on 221st Poet Street, locked inside the apartment." The bird said.

"That's Josh's place!" Zoe exclaimed. "I know where it is!"

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Penny Ling shouted. She then hugged the bird.

"Can…t… breathe…"

"Oh… sorry…" Penny Ling said while blushing, as she let the bird go.

"What are we waiting for?!" Russell shouted. "We need to get Blythe! Who's with me?"

"I am!" all pets shouted in unison except for Buttercream.

"Alright! Well, if Zoe and Minka come with me, then we'll have enough manpower!"

"'Ladypower' is a better word," Zoe said.

"No matter! Huzzah!" Russell said.

The three ran out of the pet shop and into the adventure.

"Wait…" the bird said, "Wasn't I supposed to get them to give me bird seed before giving them the address?"

Pepper walked up to Buttercream because she wanted to thank her for bringing that bird to the pet shop. "Well Buttercream, thanks for brining that bird to us!"

"Oh, you don't have to thank me, you squishy-noushy!" Buttercream responded. "I wasn't the one that found that bird!"

"Oh?"

"Ye! Sugar Sprinkles did! And she asked me to bring that bird to you!"

"So why didn't she do it herself?" Pepper asked.

"She didn't tell me, but I know that it issss!" Buttercream said. "She is busy with her love spell!"

Pepper looked shocked. "Her… love spell?"

"Ye! She is trying it out on Blythe's friends! You know, that orange-haired girl and that dark-tanned boy that are almost always around her!"

"Now why would she want to do that?" Pepper wondered.

"After it didn't work out so well in the Pet Shop, she wants to try it on a couple of humans."

"Uh-uh."

Pepper didn't really like where this was going, seeing how earlier on Sugar Sprinkles was forcing Sunil on her. And she had no feelings for Sunil and it was very… embarrassing. She wondered how those two human kids would handle it, and if there would be no backlash from it. Maybe she should go warn the others about it, but for now she wanted to focus on Blythe.

Dina was sitting on the living room where she was reading a book she found in the bookcase. Given that no one would come home for several hours, this seemed for her the most logical choice to do to kill the time. The book was about a girl falling in love with a boy after she meets him in an accident. However, she didn't pay much attention to the book given that hopefully the cavalry could arrive at any moment.

She put the book back into the bookcase and just went sitting on the staircase near the front door. If the cavalry would arrive, she wanted to be able to hear them. After all, they could walk away if she would not notice the pets coming to rescue her.

Now, 'rescue' was quite a big word. It was almost like she was tortured in here, but she knew that the Sharp family was not to blame. They were caring well for and were only keeping inside for a few days as a precaution. That it was a human girl they were caring for and that she only had less than two days before she permanently would become a cat was of course something they were ignorant of.

Dina could not blame them for anything – they had done nothing wrong, and Josh has been good to her. Still, she needed the other pets to get her out of here before she could become a human girl again.

Dina took a nice position on the staircase and started staring at the door. Now it wouldn't be long before help would arrive, now would it?

_Two hours later._

Dina heard how the front door was being opened and immediately woke up from her slumber. She realized this could be her way out so she ran towards it, only to find out the person had already closed it.

"Hey, Dina," she heard Josh say.

_He's early._

"I'm not here for long – I just need to pick up my guitar!"

Dina figured that he was going for training with his band this afternoon or something like that. She heard how he went upstairs and then came down it with his guitar. He then looked at Dina.

"Well, now come to think of it, now may be a good time to introduce the band to their new mascot."

Dina was surprised. _Their new… what?_

Josh went back and took the cage he used to transport Dina in. He opened the door and nudged at Dina to get in. Dina hesitated, but was forced in.

_But… the cavalry?!_

She softly meowed.

"Don't worry, Dina!" he said. "It will be fun, trust me!"

Dina didn't want fun; she wanted to get out of the house!

_Well, in a different way of course._

Josh put Dina's cage on the back of his motorcycle and of they went. Dina had no idea why she suddenly was the mascot of the band, but she hoped Josh would give an explanation. So she meowed a couple of times, hoping it would trigger him to talk to her. And so it did.

"Calm, Dina, it will all be okay," he said. "You'll be meeting the band today. It will be fun!"

_Fun?!_

"This band was thinking for a mascot for almost a year, you know," he said. "That was after a purple dog started barking on stage. It sounded pretty good, actually. That is also where I," he sighed, "met her."

He stopped the motorcycle because they were in front of a red light.

"So, the band started talking about getting a mascot, preferably in the form of a pet. I always wanted a dog, but my parents didn't allow me to, so I had to go for a cat. And here you are."

Dina was puzzled at what was being said to her. She was now the mascot of the band her crush was in?


	12. The Band

Josh parked his motorcycle outside a house and took Dina and his guitar with him. It was quite a bumpy ride for Dina before she was being put down again, but she didn't really mind. She meowed softly, and then was let out of the cage by Josh.

"Welcome to the band, Dina." He calmly said.

Dina saw the garage they were in. she figured it belonged to the parents of one of the band members. The walls were of simple concrete and so was the floor, with of course a couple of small windows around the ceiling of the room. In one corner she saw cupboards filled with tools as well as some gardening tools in the other back corner of the room.

In the middle of the garage were instruments set up – a drum set, a DJ stand as well as a mike. There were no guitars in sight though – Dina figured that the other guitarist would bring his own guitar with him. She recognized the tools – they were the same ones she saw when they were playing in the park when Zoe decided to sing along.

Dina was sniffing the DJ stand when she noticed that the door opened.

"Hey, Josh," Dina heard a girl say. "How's it going – "

She interrupted her sentence when she saw Dina. "Oh, you're such a cutie!"

The girl walked towards Dina and scratched her behind her ear. "So you're Dina?"

"That's Dina, yeah," Josh said. "I had to go home to pick up my guitar so I thought, why not bring her along?"

"Oh, I think you'll fit right in here," the girl said. Dina recognized her. She had brown hair, blue eyes and wore the same green headband when Zoe sang along. She was the drummer of the band.

"Now, if only she could sing," the girl said. "Then I would never want her to leave the band!"

"We'll see," Josh said. "Hey, do you know where the others are?"

"Bob is on his way, he just texted me," the girl said. "But I don't know about Angela and Erik. I've not heard from them since last -"

"Hey guys!" Dina heard a boy say. She recognized him and his blond hair everywhere. He was a guitarist on the band. "Sorry I'm late, I was stuck in traffic."

"Don't worry, Bob," Josh said, "Angelina and Erik aren't here yet anyway."

"And… our mascot is here!" the girl said.

Bob then took notice of Dina. "Hey, so you really did buy a cat!"

Josh nodded. "I told you I was going to buy one!"

"And what kind of breed is it?" Bob asked Josh.

Josh scratched his head. "Actually, I have no idea. No one ever told me. I guess no one knows what kind of cat she is."

"It's a she?"

"Yes, I've named her Dina," Josh said. "It was this or a Persian."

"Afraid there aren't enough boys in the band, Bob?" the girl teased Bob.

"Oh, shut up!" Bob said.

In the meantime Josh had set up his guitar. "Uhm, guys," he said, "I think we should get started. We have a performance this Saturday in the park, and I want to be prepared for it."

The other two nodded. Even though not the entire band had arrived yet, they still would be able to go and practice.

"And what about Dina?" the girl asked.

"Just let her stay," Bob said. "She needs to get accustomed to our music if she is going to be our mascot!"

"If she's going to hear YOU play, Bob, then she will probably try to escape for the rest of the afternoon!" the girl teased.

"Oh, shut up!"

Dina smirked to see these weird band members tease each other. They were a team; that was for sure. She then walked over to the girl and walked against her legs.

"Oh, hey sweetie," she said. She kneeled and petted Dina. "I guess you want some attention, huh?"

Dina smiled and meowed softly.

The team members walked to their respective positions and prepared their instruments.

"What should we start off with, guys?" the girl asked.

"I don't know Ashley," Bob said. "Josh, do you have any ideas?"

"Hey," Ashley said. "What about we practice with a song from the Soulpackers?!"

Dina stood up as soon as she heard that. She grinned. _Yes! Yes! Yes!_

"…the Soulpackers?" Bob asked. "Really? That band?"

"You're just jealous of them being famous!" Ashley said.

"No! Not at all!" Bob said. "…not really, anyways."

Dina, excited, hopped up and down and meowed, trying to get them to play it.

"Ha, it seems like Dina wants to hear the Soulpackers!" Josh said.

"Well, then it seems like we're going to have to play just that!" Ashley said.

Bob realized that there was no way out of this and agreed to it. "Fine." He said.

Dina went sitting on a box as the band started playing the song. They were interrupted halfway through though since the others came in, but Dina didn't really care about that. She was just so excited they started playing one of her most favorite songs from her most favorite band. Just after the others came in she decided to sing along. She knew that they would only hear her meowing, but she didn't care about that. If they allowed Zoe to sing, then they would also allow her.

_Besides, didn't Ashley say that I should sing to get myself a place in the band?_

It was hours on and Dina sang along with everything they practiced and felt herself accepted into the group, and felt the best she felt since she became a cat. She was in a complete bliss.

Russell and Minka reached their destination – Josh's place – under the guidance of Zoe who knew where he lived.

"It's quite a trip," Russell mentioned. "We will need to make it quick; get in, get Blythe out, and then we all get back to the Pet Shop. Otherwise Mrs. Twombly will definitely miss us!"

"Oh, darling," Zoe said. "It is not that far, it is only a ten-minute walk!"

"Yes; ten minutes in, ten minutes back and of course the time we spend here. That means we're away for more than half an hour!"

"Oh, yes, you're right about that…" Zoe remarked.

"Naaah guys! We will find Blythe lickety-split! Eek!" Minka joyfully said. "We only have to find an open window and we'll have her out in no-time!"

"Shouldn't we call her first? We need to find out where she exactly is!" Russell said.

"…so super brain, what is your master plan on how to find her?" Minka exclaimed, joyful as she was.

Russell frowned, and he put his paw to his chin and started thinking. He hadn't really thought on how they would track her down. Now, if only they had some device to do so, then they wouldn't have to go look through the entire house.

"Russell, Minka, please," Zoe said. "I have a nose!"

"O, yeah, right," Minka said. "I forgot."

Zoe put her nose to the ground and started sniffing.

"I definitely smell a cat scent in here. It reminds me of Blythe as she was as a human…"

"…so it is Blythe?" Russell asked.

Zoe nodded. "It has to be."

She started sniffing and started following a trail around the house. The other two pets started following her but didn't try to get her to rush. Zoe knew what she was doing. It didn't take long though before Zoe stopped.

"What is it?" Russell asked.

"Oh, darling, I don't have the faintest clue!" she said. "This is definitely Blythe's scent, but she's not here!"

"What do you mean, 'she's not here'?" Minka asked.

"They moved her!"

"Moved her?!" Minka and Russell both yelled in unison.

"That has to be it! That's the only thing I can think of!" Zoe said with a slight hint of panic in her voice.

"That can't be!" Russell yelled. "We're this close! We can't give up now!"

He then moved around the house looking for ways in. "Blythe! Where are you?" every time he yelled he stopped and listened to possible noises inside the house.

At one point, which was after he made the third round around the house, he had to declare himself defeated. He sat down on the sidewalk and sighed.

"It's no use," he said, "we're never going to find her."

"So now what?" Minka asked.

"We should be going back to the Pet Shop before Mrs. Twombly realizes we're missing," Zoe noted. "I am sorry darling, but…" she hesitated, "we're going to have to call it quits."

Russell nodded. "You're right."

"But… but…" Minka said, "We only have today and tomorrow to make her human again! We're running out of time!"

Minka and Russell tried to walk away but hesitated. Zoe then turned around and faced Minka. "I know. And I want her back to normal as much as you do. But she's not here. There is no reason to stay here. It could be all day before she comes back… if she comes back, and if Mrs. Twombly starts to miss us we would be in big trouble!"

Zoe and Russell then took off, urging Minka to go with them.

"But… I wanted to do the synthesis solution!" Minka yelled. "I HAVE ENOUGH PAINT TO MAKE EVERYTHING GREEN!"

It was already getting dark when they drove back to Josh's place. They had practiced for no less than three hours on, and Dina was exhausted. But in the end she was happy that the band was so excited about her and so accepting towards her. She was lying down in her cage, smiling.

"So, Dina," Josh said. "It seems like you will get a good performance this Saturday! I had not expected that you would sing along like that!"

Dina purred softly.

"Now, I hope you don't get stage fright and run off or something. Maybe I should get you on a leash."

_I'm sure that won't be necessary, _Dina thought to herself.

"But hey, it is two days; maybe you'll get used by then."

_Two days?_

Dina then woke up from her bliss state. Her heart immediately started pounding in her chest from the shock. She knew what that meant.

_I only have one day to become myself again!_

She stood up and looked around. She knew that Josh wouldn't allow her out of the house. She would have a lot of luck if there even were windows open, let alone ones she could climb out of!

_What am I to do?_


	13. Time's Up

Despite her anxiety did Dina quickly fall asleep that evening. The thought 'one more day to go' kept ringing in her head, and she felt herself so utterly weak to do something about it. She was held captive by the guy who was her owner – and her crush at that – and he didn't know anything about what was going on. She really wanted to tell Josh what was going on, and the next morning she finally got herself to attempt to write a note to him again. She wrote 'I'm not Dina. I'm Blythe Baxter and I've been turned into a cat. Please release me so I can try to turn myself back before it is too late.'

She had written it in clear English, and made a copy in right on Josh's laptop. But he didn't notice both. The only thing he remarked is that it was strange that Notepad was open, and that he didn't recall opening it, but didn't think much of it. He didn't even notice the piece of paper Dina had written, even after she tried to point it to him. Instead he just packed up his stuff to take with him to school.

_It was just like with Mrs. Twombly_, Dina remarked. Nobody could see for what she really was, namely the girl that got turned into a cat. But for them, she was just a normal cat with the name Dina.

Josh went to walk out of his bedroom but stopped at the door. He turned around and looked at Dina. "Well Dina," Josh said "It is bad weather out there today. I thought of letting you out now, but I don't think that is a good idea.

Dina looked outside. It was awful weather out there. It rained cats and dogs and there was a lot of wind. She saw the trees being bent by it.

"Maybe tomorrow, okay?" he said. He then left the room.

Dina wanted to protest. _He wanted to let me go outdoors today?!_

This was her chance to get outside, but the weather had made that option impossible.

She then realized something. _Maybe I can just run out of the doorway when he opens it!_

She ran downstairs, but to her shock she saw how Josh closed the door behind him and locked it. Dina was too late, and she knew it. She also couldn't wait for Josh's parents to open the door before they had already left the building.

Dina's chance to go outside and make herself normal again was gone, and she had only until midnight to make herself normal again. She felt herself getting discouraged more and more as the day dragged on. She yelled out to the outside, but nobody answered. She bashed herself against the glass of the windows but nothing happened except for herself getting hurt over it. She simply wasn't strong enough.

Dina then figured that, if she couldn't get to a high building or cliff to throw herself off, then she could perhaps use the large bookcase in the living room instead! Maybe that would suffice!

She climbed up the thing, which took some practice and getting used to. In the meantime she accidentally let a book fall down onto the floor. It wasn't damaged though. But Dina couldn't care less about that book. Herself becoming normal was her top priority!

After a while she reached the top of the bookcase. When she looked down, she noticed that she was quite high up. She gulped as she saw it. She shook her head, trying to get the fear out of her.

_I have to face this if I'm to be myself again!_

She knew she had to jump off it. She took a deep breath and jumped off it.

In a quick reaction her paws instinctively stretched out and landed on the floor with a thud. She blinked with her eyes. When she looked around, she realized that she was fine. Not even a scratch or bruise on her.

_Oh, yes, right,_ she thought. _I'm a cat. Cats are good at landing._

She knew that, unless if it was really high up, she had no hopes of getting a hard landing that would make her be herself again. And this was the highest spot in the house she could think of. Well, except the staircase that is, but she doubted that falling off a staircase with a lot of small falls would help her case. And as much as she wanted to be her old self, she didn't want the chance to injure or kill herself while doing so she wouldn't have reached her goal.

At this point Dina was utterly defeated. She went with her paws in her hair – or what was left of it.

"Oh… what am I to do?"

It was a relatively quiet day in the Pet Shop. It took a while before all the pets were dropped off. Due to the bad weather there were traffic jams all over Downtown City, and it thus took a while before everyone got at the Littlest Pet Shop. Russell of all pets was the last one to arrive, even though normally his owners would be the first to drop him off.

"So, are we going to do another rescue party today?" Vinnie asked. "Because this is the last day we have before the spell becomes permanent!"

Russell nodded. "Its bad weather out there, but we have to get through it! For Blythe!"

Zoe looked outside, shivering as she saw it. "That weather will make an absolute mess of my fur! …but I guess this is a sacrifice I have to make."

"Oh, come on!" an excited pink spider monkey exclaimed, "That is only part of the adventure! Eek!"

"Please, Russell, let me come as well," Sunil said, "if all fails, I don't want myself to think that I was the coward that did nothing!"

Russell nodded. "You can come along as well if you want to."

That made him think of something. "Wait. I need a team out there." he looked around the room. "Who's with me?"

All the pets enthusiastically shouted that they wanted to go along.

"Not all at once!" Russell said. He then pondered for a moment. "Okay; me, Sunil and Minka. Is that okay for everyone?"

"But…" Penny Ling said, "I want to do something as well!"

"I'm sorry Penny Ling," Russell said. "I want a small team for this. If we all go, then we'll be seen for sure. Besides, you guys have to bring livelihood here in the Pet Shop so Mrs. Twombly doesn't realize we're gone and starts looking for us."

"Oh, that makes sense," Penny Ling said. "Well, then I'll go ribbon dancing. Maybe doing so I can distract Mrs. Twombly long enough."

"That's the spirit!" Russell said. He then faced Sunil and Minka. "My guys, let's go!"

Russell walked towards the opening in the wall but botched against it. It wouldn't open.

"What?"

Minka and Sunil walked to the flap and pushed against it, but there was no way they could move it.

"Oh, sweeties, I'm afraid no one is going outside today!" they heard Mrs. Twombly say. They turned around and saw her with breakfast.

"It is very bad weather out there. I don't think your owners want you to get a cold out there!"

Mrs. Twombly put down the bowls and walked back out the door. "Ha, silly pets," she said. "I can't imagine what would be so important for them to get out in this weather!"

The pets all got eerily quiet and no one moved a muscle. Except for Vinnie that is, because he instantly went to his bowl and started eating.

The one to break the silence was Minka.

"So… no synthesis?"

Dina had waited for hours at the front door, waiting for a moment to make a run for it and escape. It was too bad for her though that Josh had decided to come through the back door. Josh then decided to take Dina with him to his room to make her more known with the music for tomorrow or so he explained.

Dina of course didn't really care for the band right now.

In the meantime did Josh's parents come home. Dina hoped that one or more of them would have to go out in the evening, like doing grocery shopping. The weather had cleared up, but it seemed like neither Josh nor his parents took this opportunity to go outside. They simply had no reason to do so.

Dina didn't eat or drink much, but still she had to go four times to the litter box. She felt herself losing her sanity and started to panic and run around the house, desperately looking for a way out.

"What has gotten into that cat?" Josh's mother mumbled.

At one point Josh had to do some extra practice, so he decided to get Dina into his room so he could calm her down from whatever was letting her freak out so much. Josh's father just figured it was just because Dina was a cat and therefore needed a few wild moments every now and then, but Josh wasn't so sure about that.

Dina did, however, calm a bit down when Josh started practicing. Josh didn't expect that reaction. Still, she was still stressed out by something even though Josh had no clue what it was. He decided to pick her up and started petting for a bit. Despite the almost inevitable situation that was going on, Dina did enjoy his company and the fact that he was there for her. If she had to be a cat, he was the best person in the world to be his owner. She felt accepted by him and his parents as well as his band. She curled up in his lap and slowly started purring.

She shook her head. _No! I can't think like that!_

After a while she decided to leave Josh's room, but she was less stressed out as she was before. Why this was she could not phantom.

Dina went downstairs and went into the living room. She saw on the large clock that it was past ten o'clock already. Josh should be going to bed right about now.

She didn't run anymore, but she was still walking around restlessly. Josh's parents didn't think much about it though.

It was around half past eleven that Josh's parents went to bed, and it became silent once more in the living room. That is when Dina knew that the cavalry would not be coming. The pets of course were picked up by their owners six hours ago.

There would be no cavalry, no rescue party.

Dina helplessly sat on the floor and watched how the clock went slowly from minute to minute. 23:40, 23:45, 23:50, 23:55.

_Maybe there is a last-minute savior out there to get me and that I can become normal again at the last possible second like in all those movies?_

The last seconds ticked by slowly.

And then it happened.

The clock ran for twelve o'clock. Dina heard it booming in her head.

It was over.

Dina blinked her eyes and looked around her as she took into account what had passed.

_I am… too late?_

_No! No! This is so not good!_

She walked around on the carpet and moved around with her paws. She knew what this meant. She shivered and then collapsed on the ground.

_Dad… I'm so sorry…_

A tear formed in her eyes.

_Mom… I'm sorry…_

Dina the cat slowly cried herself to sleep.


	14. The Performance

It was Saturday morning. Rays of sunlight came through the windows in the living room, causing Dina to wake up. She was still lying on the carpet, and noticed that she had cried herself to sleep last night.

Dina yawned, blinked with her eyes and then looked around. It wasn't really the sun that woke her up, but instead Josh's parents who had already woken up. She saw how Josh's mother walked into the living room.

"Hey Dina, did you decide to sleep on the carpet?" she said. She walked over to Dina and petted her on the head. "Silly kitty."

Josh's mother then walked out of the living room and went into the kitchen to make breakfast.

Dina stood up and looked at the clock. It was around eight. Despite what had happened she still managed to get a good night sleep.

_I'm thirsty._

Dina walked to the backroom where her bowl with water was. There was some kibble that was leftover from last night, which was all dry now. But she was glad that there was water she could drink. Using her small tongue she got it inside.

Now that she was awake did the events from last night come back into her mind.

_Oh, yes, that's right. I'm going to be a cat forever._

She knew she had to make some plan of sorts on how to go from here. What would be the best idea? When she looked down, she saw that she had her collar on. That thought made her realize that she was Josh's pet cat and was accepted by his family and friends. Everything considered she still had a relatively good position; she was adopted by a loving family and at least had something to do in her spare time, something she now had loads of. Doing stuff with the band would be her grand activity from now on. It all could have ended differently, with her being a stray cat having to get her food out of garbage cans and having to be afraid of animal control. Or, worse, she could been trapped for months or years on at Largest Ever Pet Shop. That last idea had certainly been possible if it were not for Josh to want to buy a cat at that time.

Dina knew it was a hard choice to make, but she knew that staying with the Sharp's was the best thing to do for now. They did do nothing wrong to her, and being cold or even angry at them wouldn't make any sense, and she didn't want to overstay their welcome. They could kick her out if they wanted to, especially since they just got her at their pet cat.

For the next hour and a half did Dina do what she did do at the Sharp's; hanging around. She went to Josh's parents and asked for some attention while they were having breakfast, and they scratched her politely behind the ears.

She then went over to the front of the living room which looked out of the window onto the street. Despite it being a Saturday morning, it was quite busy on the street where cars were all moving towards their own destination. During this time did Dina contemplate about her own current position and how to go from here, and she also kept thinking about her father, her friends at school and of course her pet friends at the Littlest Pet Shop. She doubted that her father would have missed her since he still on his big flight trip. She figured that he had started to wonder though why she hasn't been picking up her phone for the last few days, but that he wouldn't think too much of it. And then he would come home in two days and notice she's missing. And then he would go call the police, have her reported as missing, and then no one would ever find a trace of her. They would end the case and state she is a runaway teen or just 'still missing' and a memorial would be made for Blythe Baxter. She didn't want to think about it, and especially about what it would do to her father. Dina felt so powerless at the inevitable situation.

Dina looked at the large clock in the room. It was around half past nine. She noticed she was hungry, so she went back to the eating bowl. She hoped that someone has poured new kibble in for her.

She entered the hallway when she heard Josh come down the stairs. She halted and waited for him to get down.

"Oh, hey Dina," she heard Josh say. She turned around to see him and meowed. Josh then got on his knees to pet her.

"Well, we almost have to go to the park to perform there. There is a lot of work that we need to do setting everything up. Besides; I don't think getting late is a good idea. I doubt Ashley would be able to handle that. She is always the unsure one."

_Oh, yes, there was a performance scheduled today._

Dina decided to focus on the here and now, and that was getting ready for that performance. She followed Josh into the room behind the kitchen where he, as she had hoped, started to give her food.

Josh emptied Dina's food bowl and filled it with fresh kibble. Dina was glad the Sharp's actually gave her a diverse diet to eat and some the same stuff over and over again. She knew how some owners of pets actually did that.

Dina ate and went to the litter box while Josh also made himself ready to go. It was around fifteen minutes past ten when Dina was in her cage on the back of Josh's scooter.

"We're going to meet the others at the park," he explained to her. "I don't think we'll be the first there to arrive. But who knows."

It didn't take long for them to get to the park. It was only a ten minute hike to get there walking, and on the scooter it took about three minutes including the red light. At the park she saw a stage that was set up along with the usual hot dog stand and some people talking to each other. She also saw Bob and Ashley standing there with their tools. How Ashley did bring her entire drum set with her, she had no idea. _Maybe her father has a really big car or something?_

"Hey, guys!" Josh said to them.

"Hey Josh," Ashley said. "Oh, look! You've brought Dina with you!"

"Isn't it too early to bring her to a performance?" Bob asked.

"Oh, I'm sure it's no problem, now is it sweetie?" Ashley said to Dina.

Dina softly meowed. Josh then opened up her cage and she went outside.

"See? You're not afraid, aren't you?" Ashley said while petting her. Dina then pushed her nose into her hand and then licked it.

_Ew! She uses yoghurt cream hand lotion!_

Dina then saw how Angela and Erik arrived at the scene. They greeted each other – and then Dina of course – and started to set up their instruments. "We're second and fifth to perform," Angela had explained while holding a piece of paper with the roster on it. "We can leave our stuff on stage though; the others only need a violin or a mike, so it is fine if we leave it for the rest of the day on there."

While the band was busy did Dina sit and wait and look at how they set everything up. She could not go anywhere anyway since Josh had put her on a leash and attached it to his motorcycle.

An hour after they arrived was the moment the first person performed. It was a girl with a violin. Dina relaxed and listened to how she played.

Then it was their turn; Dina was unleashed and taken with the others on stage. There was a big 'd'awww' amongst the crowd when she was introduced. The song that then started was one they had practiced a couple of days back so Dina had no problem with it. She didn't sing too loud but instead tried to make a simple tone so that the audience wouldn't see it as annoying meowing.

And they didn't. They loved it. Despite that Dina had never really performed, let alone singing for a crowd, did everyone love how she did it.

The pets from the Littlest Pet Shop were taken outside by Mrs. Twombly. She had talked earlier about that Blythe didn't even call her anymore but didn't go any further into it. Instead she just decided to take the pets with her to the park since they still needed their walks. It was a sunny day, so Minka decided to take her ball with her. Mrs. Twombly allowed her to do so.

When they got into the park they noticed that there was a stage and that there was a band performing there. "Hey, there is a performance in the park!" Mrs. Twombly noted. She giggled because she was a really big fan of the bands that were playing there, even though that they were just small local bands with some amateur talents. However, due to a small doorknob collection crisis she had missed that there was a performance planned today.

"Oh, I just have to see this!" Mrs. Twombly said. She took the pets with her as she went, and they didn't really like that due to them still being leashed. Mrs. Twombly took notice of that though.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweeties," she said. She then unleashed all of them. "Now be good okay? And don't stray off to far!"

Mrs. Twombly immediately went and witnessed the performance on stage, as did Zoe. Zoe liked the performances here, especially after she got that little role some time ago.

She then noticed who was standing there on the stage.

"This can't be…" she mumbled. "Blythe!" she then shouted.

"Huh?" the other pets said in unison, ceasing the activities they were partaking in.

"What is going on?" Russell asked.

"Blythe is on stage!" Zoe excitedly said.

"Really?" Sunil asked Zoe specifically. "Where is she?"

"There!" Zoe pointed at one of the singers. "Right next to that guy!"

"Hey, isn't that that boy Blythe likes?" he wondered.

Zoe looked a bit better. "You're right! That's Josh!"

"So… she does live with him?" Russell said.

"I guess so. Unless she belongs to someone else in that band," Pepper figured.

They saw on stage how Dina took note of the pets and of Mrs. Twombly, and she grinned as she saw them. She intensified her meowing for a small bit, which the audience found to be adorable, and the song ended.

The band packed up their stuff for a moment because someone else was supposed to be on the stage for the next performance. Dina ran off from the stage and towards her friends.

"BLYTHE!" Minka shouted. The pink spider monkey raced to Dina and hugged her tightly. "I thought we had lost you forever!"

Dina allowed the hug and smiled back. "Hey guys, it's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too, Blythe," Zoe said. "Even though you're… uhm…"

Dina sighed. "I know."

"Hey, Blythe," Penny Ling said, greeting her. She then hugged Dina also. "How's it going?"

"Well, not perfect," she said. "I'm a cat for the rest of my life after all. But beside that, I'm good."

"Really?" Sunil asked.

"Yes; Josh is a good owner, and his band enjoys my company. I feel really accepted by them, and it makes it more bearable. If only…" she sighed, "if only I could tell my dad where I am."

It was silent for one moment. Zoe walked around Dina, but except for that no one did do anything.

Russell finally broke the silence. "So… what will you do now?"

"I'm Josh's pet now. He's a good owner and I've got no reason to leave him or his band. He lets me go outside since today though, so I will try to visit you guys every once in a while. Or we could meet up at the park of course when Mrs. Twombly lets you out."

"Wait a second…" Zoe said, "Did you say you are Josh Sharp's pet?"

Dina nodded.

"I knew it!" she said, "we've got a whisper from a little bird that you were there, and when I got there with Minka and Russell you weren't there!"

"And when was that?" Dina asked.

"Two days ago!"

"Aah… I see…" Dina said, "that is when Josh suddenly took me to the garage where the band was practicing. He wanted me to meet them. Just before that I asked a bird to tell you where I was."

"So we did you come at the one moment you weren't there?" Russell asked.

Dina nodded.

"Oh, sod it!" Russell said. "I'm so sorry, Blythe, I didn't -"

"Don't be sorry," Dina said. "This isn't your fault. That I'm a cat isn't anyone's fault. It is just something we've got to accept."

She hesitated. "It is something that I've got to accept."

"So… you're not totally okay with it?" Vinnie asked.

"Of course I'm not!" Dina said, almost yelling. "I'll never go into fashion, my friends have no idea what happened to me and neither does my father!"

She got a paw around her shoulder from Zoe. "We know, Blythe, but we're here for you."

"Thanks, guys," Dina said, "Only… my name is 'Dina' now. Maybe you should start calling me that."

"Dina!" they heard Josh shout.

"Well, I guess Josh doesn't want to lose me before we have our next performance," Dina said. "Talk to you guys later, okay?"

She then walked off to Josh who took her in his arms and walked towards the stage.

It was silent among the pets.

"Blythe is… gone?" Penny Ling asked to no one in particular.

"No," Zoe said, "Blythe is in that cat body. And she always will be."

"Should we go back to Mrs. Twombly?" Vinnie asked.

The others nodded.

But Mrs. Twombly wasn't really paying attention to the pets. Instead, she was dancing her ass off at the music the bands were playing. Dina saw her doing so and smirked. When the pets realized what was going on they figured they could play in the park some more. Minka had taken a ball with her so they were able to do something in the meantime. Zoe of course was best at this game and Sunil and Vinnie didn't like that, so they were off chasing her. Penny Ling found the game to be a bit too exciting, so she stayed behind at the sidelines and watched.

After a few minutes she saw something moving up in the bushes up ahead. She had no idea what it was but decided to investigate.

"Hello? Is someone there?" she asked.

There was some movement in the bushes. Penny Ling couldn't figure out exactly what it was.

"You don't have to be afraid!"

Out of the bushes she saw two bright blue eyes.

"Come on out," Penny Ling said. She then saw how a small orange ferret walked out of the bushes. The ferret was scared to death by something, but Penny Ling had no idea what it could be.

Minka had noticed what Penny Ling was doing and joined in. "Hey, Penny Ling, you found a new friend?"

"I guess so," Penny Ling said. Both Minka and Penny Ling were taken aback though by the presence of the ferret.

"Ooh… and what is your name, then?" Minka asked.

The orange ferret didn't respond to the question but instead looked at the two like she had seen a ghost.

"This is impossible!" the ferret shouted. Minka and Penny Ling noticed that it was a she. "Animals cannot talk! This… this must be… is this a bad dream? It is! It has to be!"

"Huh?" Minka said while scratching her head.

"Uhm… what are you talking about?" Penny Ling asked.

"This is all just not real! In dreams you're always running from danger, and I've been running all morning! If I just close my eyes and open them again, I'll wake up in my own bed!" the ferret said.

She closed her eyes tight. The two pets were staring at her, with now Zoe who was joining in.

Then the ferret opened her eyes again. "No! There is no way this is true!"

Penny Ling walked over to Zoe and whispered in her ear. "I think we should get Blythe, oh, I mean, Dina into this. She'll know what to do!"

Zoe nodded. "You're right."

She then got Minka and went over to the stage. They were lucky; Dina's next performance would be in more than twenty minutes and the band members weren't really paying attention to her. Despite that, she was once again put on a leash that was attached to Josh's motorcycle.

"Well, Bl…, uhm, Dina, I think you should come see this," Zoe said. "I've never seen a pet like this before!"

"Uh… what are you talking about?" Dina asked.

"Well, there's this weird ferret shouting weird things that make no sense and we were hoping you could help us with that!" Minka said. "Hey! It is just like the blue boy in my synthesis-dream last night! Eek!"

Dina shook her head and just ignored the pink spider monkey's last sentence.

"So…" Dina said. "There is a weird ferret and you want me to check it out?"

Zoe nodded.

"Alright, I think I can do that," Dina said. "I cannot stay too long, though; I have my next performance in a few minutes!"

She unleashed herself and went along with the pets.

The spider monkey, dog and girl-turned-cat walked over to the spot where Penny Ling had found the ferret.

Dina had no idea what was exactly going on but decided to follow the two. Zoe and Minka led her to Pepper and Penny Ling who were standing near an orange ferret. The ferret y seemed to be in some kind of shock and was shaking on its paws. She went standing before the ferret and looked at it.

"Well, hi there," Dina said.

The ferret didn't respond but instead looked at Dina with big eyes, like Dina was some sort of alien monster.

"I'm Dina! What's your name?" she politely asked the ferret.

The ferret didn't respond again. Dina looked into the ferret's bright blue eyes and put on a smile to try to get her at ease.

"Uhm…" Dina said, "My friends told me you might have an issue. Could you tell me what is it, miss ferret?"

"I am NOT a ferret!" the ferret exclaimed. Dina recognized the ferret's voice and out of shock she took a few steps backwards. The ferret stammered for a bit and then looked directly into Dina's eyes.

"My name is Sue Patterson!" the ferret shouted, "I'm a human girl!"

_What the huh?_

Pepper instantly sneaked up behind her and knocked her out cold with her squishy chicken plush.


	15. The Orange Ferret

Dina saw how Pepper had knocked out Sue.

"What did you do that for?!" Dina shouted at Pepper.

"I don't know! I just reacted!" she said.

"Okay, uhm…" Dina pondered her thoughts. "You guys go back with Mrs. Twombly to the Littlest Pet Shop. I'll take Sue with me to the back alley behind the shop. Meet me there!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Russell said.

"But…" Minka said, "what about Josh?"

Dina hesitated for a bit. "Josh can wait! This is more important!"

"Okay!" Penny Ling said. "We'll meet you there!"

The pets went back to Mrs. Twombly, who was still listening to the performances. _Of course._

Dina hated to leave Josh alone without him having a clue where she had gone off to, especially since he was her owner. But this was something far more important.

Dina looked at Sue and decided to put her on her own back. She nuzzled under her belly, put her head under her and came out the other side, and so she had placed Sue on her back.

It was a hilarious sight for anyone to enjoy, a cat carrying a ferret as quickly as she could, but except for a couple of children no one did notice it.

She went through the streets, went around the corner at the Sweet Shop, passed the Littlest Pet Shop, turned around another corner and came into the back alley. There were a few dumpsters located there, along with some other thrash. That included a mattress as well which still looked comfortable. She decided to put Sue there.

After Dina had done that, she was unsure of what to do next. Would she need to try to wake Sue up? Or just let her be unconscious until she wakes up? Or just wait for the other pets to get here before making a decision?

Waiting seemed to be the best option for now. And so, Dina waited until the pets would come back while she watched over her friend-turned-ferret. She kept thinking about what could've possibly made her this way.

_In the notes about the shaman it was said that person whom can talk to animals could turn into animals themselves… but… what has that got to do with Sue? Sue cannot talk to animals! Or, at least I don't thinks she does… _she shrugged off that thought. _No. if she could talk to animals, then she had already one so long ago to the pets of Littlest Pet Shop. Or… maybe she thinks she has gone crazy when she started to hear animals talk and started to ignore it?_

_No, it's not that._

"Hi Blythe… Dina I mean!" Dina heard a voice say. She turned around and saw it was Russell, who had the rest of the pets in tow.

"Oh, hey guys," Dina said. "Glad you're all here."

"How is she?" Pepper said. "I didn't hit her too hard, didn't I?"

"No, she's mostly asleep from shock rather than your chicken," Dina said. "But I guess she will wake up soon."

"What's the plan?" Minka said.

"Well…" Dina said, "I will wait until she wakes up, and then start questioning her. Russell, can you help me with that?"

"Of course!" Russell said.

"Ooh… can I help too? I'm really good at that! Eek!" Minka said.

"I want to this alone with Russell, Minka," Dina said. "Asking some questions will be a lot easier if only two pets are involved."

The other pets nodded and went back inside. Zoe notified both Russell and Dina that she wanted to be informed about any results, which the two promised to do.

After all the pets left, it was silent for a little while in the alley. Russell broke the silence. "So, how are we going to handle it?"

"Gently, but persistent," Dina said, "We need to figure out what caused it."

"Yes… but wait…" Russell said, "Wasn't the transformation that occurred to you caused by the fact that you can talk to pets? I don't think Sue here can talk to pets!"

"Yes, that is exactly what I was talking," Dina said. "Also, Russell… please don't tell her who I am. Just call me Dina, okay?"

Russell nodded.

The two then got silent as they noticed that their guest was waking up.

"Where am I?" Sue said.

"Somewhere safe and cozy," Dina assured her. "How do you feel?"

"Groggy…"

"Okay. Now, your name was Sue, wasn't it?"

Sue nodded.

"My name is Dina. This is Russell. We want to help you, but we need to ask you a few questions."

"Uh… okay," Sue said. "You animals can start your police interrogation if you want to."

"Let's get started, then," Dina said. She then softly smiled at Sue and started asking questions. "You said you're human, right?"

Sue nodded.

"When did you turn into a ferret?" Dina asked her.

"I don't know!" Sue said. "It was last night, I think… I remember feeling ears on top of my head, and then I got all sleepy and I was out in a few seconds."

"And after you woke up, what happened?" Russell asked.

"I panicked and left home in a hurry, unsure of what to do. I was afraid that my parents would find me and would kick me out, or, even worse, call animal control or something."

"And then?" Dina asked.

"I was on the corner between the Littlest Pet Shop and Sweet Delight, when suddenly I saw Jasper!"

"Jasper?!" Dina asked, more surprised rather than it being a question.

"Yes, he's a friend of mine. He… he picked me up, said I was 'such a poor thing' and that he wanted to take care of me! That's… that's nothing for Jasper! I then panicked and ended up in the park! Now to think of it…"

"What is it?" Russell asked.

"Jasper has not been himself this whole week! I don't know if it has got to do with Blythe being sick, but he looks at me like he has a crush on me or something! It's really weird!"

"Wait… a crush?"

_Just like with Josh having a crush on me before I became a cat… like both of them were under the influence of a Love Spell or something…_

That is when the realization dawned in.

"Russell, I've got it! I think I know how to make Sue normal again!" Dina said.

"Really?" both said in unison, although Sue's voice was far weaker.

"Now, Sue, I want you to know that I am going out to find the solution. You need to stay here, okay? Just get some rest. I'll make sure you're looked after."

"But… Dina… I want to help!" Sue said.

"No, Sue, you're too weak for that," Dina said. It was an exaggeration since she only suffered from shock, but Dina wanted Sue to stay here. "Don't worry, okay? I'll make everything okay. I promise." She nuzzled Sue slightly after she said that.

"Why… why do you do this?" Sue asked. "Why help me?"

"Let's just say that I'm a guardian angel."

"Huh. I suppose that makes sense," Sue said.

"Don't worry, okay? I'll be back soon," Dina said. She then went for the door, but urged Russell to stay with Sue.

She then went into the Pet Shop, where she saw that the pets were waiting for her. "How did it go? How did it go?" a small pink monkey excitedly said.

Dina smirked and looked at the pets. "I've got a very good lead. I think I know why I'm a cat and why Sue's a ferret."

"Ohh?!" the pets said in unison, pointing their heads forward to Dina.

"Yes. First off, Sue could never talk to animals before. So, it was not due to the case of people who could talk to animals turning into animals was the reason me or Sue transformed. But it gets better. Before I became a cat, Josh had a crush on me. He never came forward with it though and I was so stupid to neglect him and avoid him. Then I turned into a pet. Josh then became my owner. Sue told me that before she became a ferret, Jasper had a crush on her. Then… Jasper tried to take care of her."

"Are you saying the two cases are related?" Zoe said.

"Yes… especially since Jasper never had feelings for Sue. It was like it all came to be through a love spell," Dina said.

It took a few moments before it kicked into the pets what this meant, and then they all yelled,

"SUGAR SPRINKLES!"

The pets wanted to rush over to Sweet Delight through the crack in the wall, but Dina urged them not to. "Wait!" the pets then halted and looked at Dina.

"Guys, I want to do this alone," Dina said.

"Why?!" Pepper said. "She deserves some good yelling in her face!"

"She probably didn't realize what she was doing!" Dina said. "I'll just go and explain to her that she needs to stop the love spell!"

"And if she stops the love spell, you both will turn human?" Sunil asked.

"Hopefully." Dina said.

"But wait a second," Zoe said. "Something doesn't make sense! If the spell is about love, then why would you then become a pet owned by the one that fell in love with you? How is there any love between a pet and its owner?"

"I think I've got that figured out as well," Dina said.

"Oh?" the pets said in unison.

"Yes; there is more to love than just romantic love. There is the love between parents and their children. There is brotherly love, unconditional love. And there is also the love an owner gives to its pet."

"It explains THAT you could be turned into a pet then to become the pet of the one that was supposed to fall in love with you. It still doesn't explain WHY you then would be turned into a pet!" Zoe said.

"I know…" Dina said. "But I'm now going to find out!

She then walked through the hole in the wall and into Sweet Delight. She had not expected that Sugar Sprinkles was the one who was behind all this, but at this point it was the most logical option.

_Now, where is she?_

"Hey, Blythie-Blythe!" she heard the energetic voice of a yellow bunny say.

"Oh, hey Buttercream," Dina said. "Do you know where Sugar Sprinkles is?"

"Well, she may be sugardreaming in her coozy woozy with sugary smoozy!"

"…what?" Dina said.

"What?" Buttercream said. Her ears then immediately became erect, her eyes small, which was followed by her stomping on the ground and releasing a gasp.

"Anywho…" she continued, "I guess she is in the truck, in one of the drawers after one of her sugar rushes!"

"Okay! Thanks Buttercream!"

Dina walked out of the shop and into the Sweet Truck, which was parked at the front of the store. The hatch was opened, so she was able to get inside. When she looked up, she saw that only one drawer was opened, and she saw a pink clump of hair sticking out from one side. Dina figured it had to be Sugar Sprinkle's tail.

_Bingo._

"Sugar Sprinkles?" Dina said.

She heard and saw something moving and before she knew she saw the head of Sugar Sprinkles looking down at her.

"Hey… hello there… I don't think I know you!" Sugar said. She hopped off from the drawer and onto the floor. "I've never seen cats around here! You and I must be sisters!"

"…I don't think so," Dina said.

"I mean sisters in arms! We, the only cats in these parts of Downtown City! Oh, you must tell me the news!"

"Sugar Sprinkles, I'm not here for that!"

"Oh, but we've not been properly introduced yet… but hey, you already know my name! That's convenient!"

"I'M DI… BLYTHE BAXTER!" Dina yelled at her, getting impatient. "I'm here because you turned me into a cat!"

Sugar Sprinkles was perplexed at the reaction. "Wait… you're Blythe? But Blythe is a human girl!"

"Well, I turned into a cat last week… and it was possibly caused by your love spell. The same goes for my friend Sue who is now a ferret, and I hope you can undo it."

At this point Sugar Sprinkles was completely surprised at what Dina told her.

"Wait… you two got turned into pets…?" Sugar Sprinkles said, still in her high sugar rush state.

"That's… so cool!"

Dina hung with her mouth open at the reaction from Sugar Sprinkles.

"So, Blythe, how does it feel to be like me?" Sugar said. "To be a kitty with no cares in the whole wide world and - "

Dina cut her off. "No, Sugar. It doesn't feel good. And Sue is completely broken. We need to become normal again. So, please help me."

"Uh… okay, your loss," Sugar said. "Shoot!"

"For that love spell of yours," Dina said, "what do you do?"

"Well, I pick up my guitar and sing a little song! And then the boy will fall in love with the girl! Here, let me demonstrate it!"

She pulled out her guitar, but Dina took it out of her paws.

"No!" Dina said. "Uhm… only the lyrics, please!"

"Awwww that's no fun!"

"Please, Sugar Sprinkles?" Dina said, putting on big eyes.

Sugar Sprinkles sighed but decided to go along with it. She coughed and then put on her song.

"You can love most anyone, it's happy and it's free! Go ahead and try it, with the next pet that you see! Secret Cupid is my name, some think I'm cuckoo! My secret's not too secret, though, 'cause love's what I do do!"

Dina tried to interpret what the song meant. _This seems like a simple song… just try to love the next pet that you see…_

_Wait… 'pet'?_

"Sugar Sprinkles?" Dina asked, "do you use this song only towards pets or also towards humans?"

"Of course I use the same song! It works like a charm!"

"…Sugar Sprinkles, Sue and I are not pets."

"But now you are, right?" Sugar Sprinkles said.

"Exactly. Before Josh or Jasper could love us as being their pets, we had to become one. And that is exactly what your song did!"

The realization now dawned into Sugar Sprinkles brain. "Oh… ehm, oops?"

"Yes, oops! And now you can fix it! You can reverse the spell, right?" Dina asked.

Sugar Sprinkles nodded. "But I'll have to do it in Josh and Jasper, not on you guys."

"Ugh! Why did you have to make Sue and Jasper a couple, anyways?"

"Well, Blythe, don't you see how neglected he is?" Sugar Sprinkles asked her.

"Huh?" Dina said, surprised.

"He's always the one on the sidelines! He's always the tagalong kid! I've seen that! And he tries to do his best, and he deserves some love! Especially since he always hangs out with girls but doesn't have a girlfriend!"

"…okay?"

"And then Josh! You say you like the guy so much, but you're just acting really silly in front of him and embarrassing him in front of his friends! And then you're neglecting him, even after I tried to get him to have a crush on you! Why couldn't you just pack up your courage and ask him out instead of leaving these vague hints?! What is wrong with you human girls?!"

"Well…" Dina stammered, "I…"

She didn't know what to say anymore.

"Ah, well," Sugar Sprinkles said. "I guess I'll have to turn you and your friend Sue back."

"Okay, you go do that…"

Dina gave Sugar Sprinkles her guitar back and they both went out of the truck. "Who are we off to first?" Sugar Sprinkles asked.

"Jasper first," Dina said.

Dina didn't know if the four-day limit also applied to this spell. She hoped it wasn't the case, especially since this could be her last option. Still, Sue certainly wasn't restricted by that rule yet since she is just a ferret since this morning. So, naturally, she would come first.

_Weird that I'm thinking about the four-day time rule even though I have three days to find Jasper._

Sugar Sprinkles and Dina walked in front of the Littlest Pet Shop and halted there.

"Why him last?" Sugar Sprinkles asked.

Dina shrugged. "Well, if it was the other way around, then I would have to help you find Jasper while I'm still turning back, while in this order I can help with both."

"Hm… or is it that you want to stay cat a little while longer?"

"What? No!" Dina stammered. "What makes you think that?"

"You not only look like a cat, you're behaving like a cat! I can see it in how you walk and how you use your ears and whiskers to show off your emotions."

"Uh… I… no," Dina said. "Just let's get this over with."

"Now, where is it that Jasper can be?" Sugar Sprinkles asked Dina.

"He was looking for Sue, to take care of her, so he can be anywhere. He can even be in the park right now!"

"So, where do you want to start?"

Dina pondered her thoughts. "I guess we can check the back alley were I put her down. If Jasper would stumble upon her there, it would make the ultimate story scenario of a 'let us care for the sad animal that would then become our very beloved pet'."

The two pets went into the alleyway, and saw the other pets standing there around the mattress, except that Sue wasn't there.

"Where is Sue?!" Dina yelled at them out of fright.

"Jasper took her while you were gone, Dina!" Pepper said. "He just pushed us away, so we couldn't do anything! And hey, Sugar Sprinkles is here, so…?"

Dina nodded. "Yes. It is the love spell. But we got to go now! We need to get Sue back from Jasper! How did you let her be taken anyways?"

"We could do nothing against it!" Zoe said. "What should we do? Bite him?"

"And… no one is after him?"

"Uh… no," Vinnie said.

"Alright. We need to go get her! Follow me!"

The other pets nodded and decided to follow Dina.

"At least I know where he lives," Dina mumbled to no one in particular.

The group of nine pets – the seven pets from Littlest Pet Shop, Dina and Sugar Sprinkles – ran as fast as they could towards Jasper's home. It was the best lead they had, but they had to find Sue before he would take her to the vet or something else that could lead to disastrous results.

"So… you're called 'Dina' now, huh Blythe?" Sugar Sprinkles said.

"Uh… yes, Sugar. That's correct. Josh gave me that name." Dina said.

"So you really have become a kitty!"

Dina was getting frustrated by this but decided to keep her head cool, and just ignored the cat.

The pets passed several street lights and sidewalks, and there were some left before they would come to the apartment where the family Jones lives.

_Maybe being a kitty isn't that bad._


	16. The Return

It did take more than ten minutes before they reached the apartment of the Jones, but Dina was relieved there weren't any incidents along the way. That would be too much to handle. Dina knew that they were noticed though; seeing a large group of pets on their own running towards something did get them some stares from people. Dina could only hope that no one would call Animal Control or the police.

Dina looked up to the windows on the first floor, and saw Jasper standing there with Sue.

"They're on the first floor, near that window to our left."

"So, what's the plan?" Pepper asked.

"Get in, get Sue, get out," Dina said. "Now, the only thing I'm not certain about is how we can get in."

"I can do it!" Minka excitedly said.

Dina nodded. "Okay; Vinnie, you go ring their doorbell. Then, Minka needs to get through the window and get Sue out of there. Can you handle that?"

Minka nodded and saluted. "Yes, milady!"

"Now, I want the other pets to try to catch her as Minka gets her from the window downstairs. Sugar Sprinkles, please stand near the door to play your song if Jasper opens the door."

"And if he doesn't open the door?" Sugar Sprinkles asked.

"Then we'll have to do that some other time!" Dina said. "Everybody ready?"

The pets nodded.

"Go!"

Minka climbed up to the window of the first floor but stopped before getting inside to not get detected by Jasper. Vinnie then climbed up the door and rang the doorbell.

"Okay, Vinnie! Hide!" Dina said.

She then saw how Minka went inside. Dina figured that Jasper came downstairs to open the door. The only one left standing before the door was Sugar Sprinkles, with her guitar at the ready.

Dina felt her heart beating in her throat as the door opened. She was relieved that Jasper was the one that opened it.

Sugar Sprinkles immediately started singing. "Terces dicup si ym eman, Emos kniht m'I ookcuc! Ym s'terces ton oot terces, hguoht, Esuac' s'evol tahw I od od"

Dina saw how small hearts got sucked out of Jasper and back into Sugar Sprinkle's guitar. She hoped that it would cause Sue to turn back now to normal, but she had no idea if that was the case.

Jasper stared for a few moments at the weird cat in his front yard before he decided to close the door and head back up to his room.

"I've got her!" Minka said. "Catch!"

The other pets came to the front of the window and took Sue up in their arms when she was dropped from the first floor window. Dina was amazed that Sue didn't freak out and that the other pets could catch her so gracefully.

_Maybe Sue still thinks she is asleep?_

"Okay," Sunil said, "Where do we need to go now?"

"We'll bring Sue home!" Dina said.

"Oh! Back to her own bed?" Penny Ling wondered.

Dina nodded.

_Maybe… if we're quick enough, she may think this was all just a very bad dream. _

The now ten pets, one of them being carried on Penny Ling and Pepper's back, hurried behind Dina who knew where Sue lived. The pets of the Littlest Pet Shop had been at Sue's place once – safe for Russell and Penny Ling –but most had already forgotten where she exactly lived, let alone on how to get from Jasper's place to that of Sue.

"Red light!" Zoe said.

The pets stopped before the red traffic light. It would take a while before they would be allowed to cross over. Dina could only hope that nobody had called animal control.

"Phew… a break!" Pepper said. "It feels like this weight is getting heavier by the minute!"

Dina looked at Sue. "That's because she is! She's turning back to normal!"

Dina moved over to Pepper and Penny Ling and started to help them out with the weight they were carrying. Sunil decided to help out as well.

"It's green!" Sunil shouted.

"Uh… an apple?" Vinnie asked.

"No! The traffic light!" Dina said.

The pets moved quickly through the traffic and raced themselves towards Sue's home. It took them a small while, but they managed to get there.

_Sue must have grown four inches since we left Jasper's place, _Dina figured.

"And what's the plan now?" Zoe asked.

"We need to get her inside, on her bed is our best bet," Dina said. She looked around. It looked like nobody was home at the Petterson's, so there was a less chance of getting caught.

Well, except for everyone who saw the display of ten pets running down the streets, one of them being carried.

"Is there a way inside?" Sunil asked.

Vinnie shook his head. "No… except for the open window in the cellar I haven't seen anything - "

"You saw what?!" Dina asked him, still carrying Sue on her back.

"Uh… there was just an open window, right there," Vinnie pointed at it. "But eh… Blythe… I mean, Dina… what -"

He then realized it. "Oh…"

"Through here!" Dina said. The opening was too small for humans but large enough for pets, even for Sue. Dina asked Sugar Sprinkles to carry Sue for her, and then went through the window. She wanted to check if there was a way upstairs from there without any locked doors. She went through the window and then opened the door to upstairs. She was relieved it wasn't locked.

The pets then carried Sue through the window and gracefully let her slide onto a couple of cardboard boxes that were lying around.

It was a strange sight; nine pets carrying an ever-growing ferret upstairs on the staircase, one thread at a time. It didn't take long for them to find Sue's bedroom, and within a few minutes they had placed her onto her bed.

The pets took some breath when Sue was lying on her bed, still turning back to her old normal self. Dina looked at her for a second. At this point she was some sort of human-ferret hybrid. It wasn't creepy, it just was… weird to look at. Dina didn't think any further on the subject. Sue would be normal in a few hours. It was time to get out of here.

Dina left the room and the other pets followed suit. Instead of climbing out the window again, they decided to take the back door that led to the alley behind the house. It didn't take long before all pets were present.

Dina looked at the other pets. Some were already tired from the exertion they had to bring into this mess. Carrying a growing ferret that was getting heavier by the minute also wasn't something they did do easily.

"And now?" Vinnie asked. "Please tell me we're going back to the Littlest Pet Shop…"

"Well…" Dina said, "there's still me. I kind of want to become normal again, you know."

"Oh, yeah, that's right," Vinnie said.

"So, we need to find Josh now, right?" Pepper asked. "We 'cure' him and then you will turn back to normal?"

Dina nodded. "He'll be home by now… if he isn't still looking for me in the park. Maybe his parents are giving him a lecture right now that he lost me. Ooh… I feel sorry for him that I got him into this mess…"

She sighed. "Anyway, Sugar Sprinkles needs to set the spell on him, and then hopefully I will turn back to normal."

She heard Sugar Sprinkles mumbling under her breath why Blythe should actually go back to her owner to get scratches behind her ear and be petted, but she decided to ignore her.

"But… wouldn't you then be turning back to human-sized on the way back to Littlest Pet Shop?" Sunil asked.

Dina gave it a thought. "Yes, that's right."

Zoe intervened. "How about Sugar Sprinkles and I will go to Josh's place and you guys go back to Littlest Pet Shop? If we succeed, then you'll notice it when you're there."

Pepper nodded. "That sounds like the best plan to me. Bl… Dina… you know what, I'm calling you Blythe again. Blythe, you can be in your room before you start turning back!"

"I…" Dina stammered. She actually wanted to see the hearts coming out of Josh like it did with Jasper, so she would know the mission had succeeded.

"Dina, please, you need to get yourself home, okay?" Zoe said. "I'll make sure the job gets done."

Dina hated to leave something this important up to them, but changing back to a girl while walking the streets didn't seem to be a good idea.

"Okay," Dina said. "I'll go home."

Sugar Sprinkles and Zoe went to Jasper's place while the other pets and Dina returned to the Littlest Pet Shop. Fortunately, they had no problems doing so. Nobody had called animal control or the police, or at least animal control hadn't spotted them yet.

_I hope that Mrs. Twombly hasn't been missing the pets yet. How long have we been outside? Thirty minutes?_

The pets entered the Littlest Pet Shop through the flap beside the front door and went inside.

"I hope that Mrs. Twombly hasn't been worrying about us…" Sunil said.

Dina smirked. She then looked at the clock. _We've been gone for forty minutes... a bit longer than I expected. _When she looked around, she noticed that Mrs. Twombly was at the counter on her laptop being really distracted by something. Maybe it was her doorknob collection, who knew.

"So… what do we do now?" Penny Ling asked.

"We wait," Dina said. "I'll go to my own room before Mrs. Twombly notices me and throws me outside. I'll be back tomorrow morning – human or pet."

She hopped into the dumbwaiter, but waited for a bit before heading up.

"See you, Blythe!" Pepper said. "Good luck!"

Dina closed the hatch and took the rope to get upstairs. When she got there, she noticed that her room was the same as how she left it. Her clothes were still on her bed as how she wore them when she shrank down to kitty-size.

She sniffed them. She recognized her own scent. Her human scent.

The only thing she could do right now was just sit around and wait. She climbed upon her bed, walked over her clothes and lay down on her pillow. She curled up with her tail around her body and took a nap, like all cats do.

Zoe and Sugar Sprinkles reached Josh's house. They saw how Josh and a girl from his band were standing at the door.

"I don't know, Ashley," Josh said, "maybe she'll find her way back home."

"But what if she doesn't?" Ashley said, "You should hang up some reward posters!"

"But what if she is still in the park?" Josh asked.

"Josh, we've looked through the entire park. She isn't there!" Ashley said, "She ran off, and she's probably lost!"

"You're right," Josh said.

"Huh. I guess my parents are going to kill me now for losing her."

Ashley smirked. "Don't blame yourself. We all lost sight of her. She's our responsibility too, you know. She's the band's mascot after all."

Sugar Sprinkles looked at Zoe. "I don't know why Blythe and you guys want her human again, really;" she whispered. "She has a nice owner, is mascot of a band and of course has a cat's life! What more could she dream of?"

"A future in fashion career and family!" Zoe hissed while she whispered at Sugar Sprinkles. "Now, go and do your anti-love spell!"

"Okay, grumpy pants!" Sugar Sprinkles said. She picked up her guitar and walked forward. She coughed, and started playing. "Terces dicup si ym eman, Emos kniht m'I ookcuc! Ym s'terces ton oot terces, hguoht, Esuac' s'evol tahw I od od"

Zoe saw how the hearts came out of Josh and back into the guitar.

"Let's go!" Zoe said to Sugar Sprinkles. The dog and cat then went back to Littlest Pet Shop and to Sweet's Delight.

Dina walked around in her own room, feeling restless. The nap has been short, as she woke up thinking about Josh and if he was still affected by the love spell. She was quite nervous if Sugar Sprinkles and Zoe would be able to pull it off.

_What if they can't get to Josh?_

Dina put her tail behind her front paws and played a bit with it with her right front paw.

_But what if the four-day time limit also works for Sugar Sprinkle's love spell? Josh is then cleaned from the spell, but I would remain a cat. Would Josh still like me as much then?_

_And would I stay forever like this?_

If all was lost, she knew she could return to Josh and his family. They would keep her inside because she ran off though, at least for a while.

Dina pondered some more on these questions, but all it did was worry her.

_Ugh! My front paws are killing me!_

Dina's front paws felt weird to her. Her toes were way too long…

_What the what?_

Dina looked down and saw that her toes were growing and that her fur was retracting back into her skin.

Dina smiled. She knew everything was okay to be fine. As before, she noticed that she was getting sleepy. She climbed upon her bed and lay down.

_This morning I thought I was going to be a cat forever and now…_

As everything around her became dark, Blythe knew everything was going to be alright.


	17. Epilogue

_That thing is out._

Blythe had the small chip between her fingers and examined it for a bit. There were a couple of drops of blood on it as well. It was painful to get it out, but it was worth it.

She then cleaned up the wound behind her ear and put a plaster on it. Except perhaps for a small scar no one would notice it. If someone would ask a question about it, she could always say that she had a little accident with an earring.

She cleaned up the blood in the drain and went back to her bedroom. She had to go to the Littlest Pet Shop to show the pets that she was back to normal. She saw her collar lying on her cabinet and took another good look at it, but decided to leave it for now. Blythe then opened up the hatch and went inside the dumbwaiter.

As usual, it didn't take long before she got downstairs. When she opened up the hatch again, she saw that all the pets were right in front of the dumbwaiter.

"Blythe!" Minka exclaimed. The spider monkey instantly went on top of her head and examined her. "She's back!"

The other pets joined Minka and hugged Blythe intensely, happy that their caretaker and good friend had come back.

"I was so worried, I was so afraid it wouldn't work," Sunil said.

"We were all worried," Zoe corrected.

After a few seconds they all let her go. "So, what are you going to do with Sugar Sprinkles, after everything she did?"

Blythe smirked. "I doubt she had any idea that her little love spell would cause all this, Zoe."

"So..." Vinnie asked Blythe, "What are you going to do, then?"

"As long as Sugar Sprinkles doesn't use her love spell anymore on humans, I'm fine with her," Blythe responded. "Really."

She sighed. "I'm worried about more than Sugar Sprinkles."

"Oh?" all pets responded in sync.

"Yes, it's… Josh."

"Josh?" Penny Ling asked. "Wasn't that your owner?"

Blythe nodded. "He now lost his cat, and he didn't deserve that. He was so nice to me. It was actually hard to leave him, but… I had to go back to you guys. And dad. And my friends. And Mrs. Twombly."

"So what are you going to do now?" Pepper asked.

"I have no idea. I have my own chip, and my collar, and if I bring up everything that had happened past week between him and me, then maybe I could convince him its really me, and that his cat is doing just fine. He deserves to know that."

"Deserving to know that his cat was actually a girl?" Pepper asked. "Uh… isn't that something really creepy that would stress him out even more?"

"You're probably right. I still need to go see him though."

"Oh?" Penny Ling asked. "What about?"

Russell pondered his thoughts. "If it isn't about you having been his cat, it must be about something else. What then?"

"Maybe… you still have a crush on him? Like when you wanted me to stop him from getting that letter?" Zoe asked.

Blythe nodded. "Yes, Zoe. It's about that."

The female pets suddenly were very interested in what Blythe had to say. The guy pets – especially Russell – were less interested.

"I noticed that he has a crush on me. I think it is more than just the love spell Sugar Sprinkles put on him. I've… " she lowered her head, "been an idiot."

"Don't say that!" Penny Ling said.

"No, Penny Ling, really. I've stood before him so many times acting silly and ignored him so many times… I'm the one to blame here. I can't just sit around giving half-baked vague hints to him or even ignore him." She said. "I think I'm going to ask him out."

"Look, I'm not good on girl stuff, but uh…" Pepper said. "Isn't the guy supposed to ask the girl out?"

"After everything I did, I suppose it's only fair if I ask him out. Maybe he had already given up."

"Makes sense," Zoe said. "And how are you going to do that?"

"I don't know. I'll figure out a way I guess." Blythe said. She stood up and walked towards the dumbwaiter.

"Where are you going, Blythe?" Zoe asked.

"I don't know."

"Huh. I guess Sugar Sprinkle's love spell worked out after all," Zoe remarked.

Blythe went into the dumbwaiter and headed upstairs. She still had some business to take care of – she had to go grocery shopping, cleaning out the stuff in the fridge that was past expiration date, call school to tell them she wasn't ill anymore, and stuff like that. And of course she had to welcome her father in when he would come back the coming evening from his long trip.

But in the end all she could think of was Josh.

_I'll figure out a way to ask him out. _

_And I've still got my chip and collar…_

_Should I tell him?_

Blythe Baxter sighed. In any case, she would have plenty of time to think about an answer.

**THE END.**

* * *

_So, this was the end of Dina… I mean Blythe's story. Reviewsss plzzz… Please make them longer than 100 words since I want some details in there to understand how to improve my writing skills. In case you ask; yes, this was a training to get myself to write a whole story longer than 80 pages in one single go, without correcting myself save for a basic Word spell check, and in the end to see how well the plot and themes worked out without editing._

**In case you missed them, these are the allusions (references) I placed in the story:**

The _Littlest Pet Shop _series is heavily based around _Alice in Wonderland_ and the Nonsense Genre it gave us. For example, the Biskit twins are a mix between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and the Evil Queen of Hearts and the dumpwaiter represents the rabbit hole. Therefore, I decided to name Blythe being a cat with the name Dina, which was the name of Alice's pet cat. Dina also plays a role in _Care Bears in Wonderland_ and there is also a Dina, namely the Clifford-sized puppy, in _My Little Pony & Friends_.

The Synthesis solution is a satire on the ending of the videogame _Mass Effect 3_, which still traumatizes me to this day. The whole red-green-blue problem is why I chose Minka to run the joke because of her.

Dina slowly becomes more cat-like as the story drags on. This is based around the 1922 novel _Lady into Fox_, where a man describes how he saw his wife turn into a fox and slowly saw her mind deteriorate as time dragged on, at one point even wondering if she would remember the times they played cards together, let alone if she would remember how to play them

At the beginning of the story does Blythe arrive at school way to early; This is a reference to _My Little Pony Friendship is Magic_ season 1 episode 11 where something similar occurs before _Winter Wrap Up_.

The quote 'her yell was long and loud' at the end of the second chapter is a reference to the ending of the movie _300_.

The beginning of episode 4 is ripped off from the book _Finding the Fox_ by Ali chapter 6 Sunil says "I have the feeling these words caused millions of voices to suddenly cry out in terror and then were suddenly silenced". I don't think I'll need to point out where this quote came from. Sunil btw talks about the fans of _Mass Effect 3._

In chapter 14 Blythe/Dina thinks 'oh, yes, that's right. I'm going to be a cat forever', which is a reference to the anime _Tokyo Mew Mew_ episode 28, where the main character after being turned into a cat, remembers after a couple of hours 'oh, yes, that's right, I'm a cat'.

In chapter 14 Zoe says that they got a whisper from a little bird. This is a reference to _Game of Thrones_.

In chapter 14 Sue closes her eyes and opens them again to escape from her ferret-nightmare. This is a reference to the 2010 version of _Alice in Wonderland_.


End file.
